


𝑾𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒈𝒂𝒎𝒆

by Stardust754



Category: Tomb Raider & Related Fandoms, Tomb Raider (Movie 2018), Tomb Raider (Trinity), Tomb Raider (Video Games)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Character Development, Comedy, Explicit Language, F/M, Falling In Love, Freeform, Graphic Description, Love/Hate, Military, Other, Part 1, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Romance, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Trinity (TR)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:53:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 23
Words: 63,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27162769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stardust754/pseuds/Stardust754
Summary: This is a freeform of post Shadow of the Tomb raider, where Trinity leaders reunite for some revenge. Exciting love/action roller-coaster. Enjoy! *REDONE* 📝
Relationships: Konstantin (Tomb Raider)/Original Female Character(s), Lara Croft/Trinity, Pedro Dominguez/Original Female Character(s), Rourke (Tomb Raider)/Original Female Character(s), original - Relationship
Comments: 57
Kudos: 14





	1. 𝐎𝐥𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬

There have been three years since Trinity felt apart, and those three years were enough to drive Konstantin crazy.

Every second of his conscious existence, he would regret everything he has done at this point in life. Ana was dead, and he could not revive her with his everyday prayers. At this point, he stopped believing in God altogether, and that became a routine for him. He was aware of Ana's betrayal and the godly stigmata on his hands. She was using him as an old ripped doll for everything she needed. Before her illness, it all was the same. Same stories about his importance to God and how he was chosen to do God's work. And he believed her. Blindly. He missed her every day but also, the rage was there. The pain in his chest was turning to weight on his soul.

Shortly after he recovered from Siberia mentally and physically, he found a job, knowing that he won't be able to work for Trinity anymore. They did not want him after all the drama that happened. Especially after finding out he wanted Holy Divine Source for himself. His job was taking a toll on him. Dark and swollen under eyes were there to match his rugged look. His messy blond hair was unkempt, his blue eyes turned grey, and his will for a better life was nowhere to be found.

He was sitting in his little office near the morgue, guarding dead bodies. Frequently he asked himself how he managed to survive the last fight when Croft left him to rot in hell. His office started to fill with cigarette smoke. He remembered Ana every time he lit a new one.

### (★★★)

"Ah, this weather is so delightful", said a dark, muscular man in a mocking English accent, looking terribly annoyed about the rain and cold that surrounded him. "For how long are we going to be in this shitty country, doctor?"

"Rourke, stop the nonsense with that accent! We are here for as long as it takes to find him", said his companion which was sitting next to him in the small coffee shop.

Rourke smirked as he snuggled himself in his coat and switched to his natural American accent.

"Doctor... I have an extreme urge to punch him in the face when I see him... do I have the permission to do so?" He asked the older man, which looked at him like he has lost his mind.

"Do it but at your own risk. You two are fighting like lovers every time you meet. It will make no difference if you don't do something stupid, commander." Rourke frowned on his words. "Besides, we want him healthy and useful, don't forget that."

Dominguez liked Rourke as his left hand because he was one intelligent leader, but sometimes, his anger took the best of him. If he just tried to ground himself a bit, it would be better for both of them in many situations. For most things, those two were good allies and shared the same interests, but now that they were alone, on the edge of their failed careers, they found themselves even much closer. It was a soldier thing. They needed to trust each other as brothers do and even to die together if it is required. Last time they were defeated and shamed, but now, it was all in their hands. The strings they were pulling, for someone's higher interest, were broken. They were a disappointment for Trinity.

"What if he is not even alive? Maybe we are wasting our fucking time searching for him, doctor."

"I have information from a reliable source Rourke, don't you worry", he said while sipping his tea.

"I feel like a neglected child here", said Rourke with an English accent, boredom plastered across his face. The doctor smiled at him.

"Don't worry... we will fulfil our plans. Just a bit longer till we find him."

### (★★★)

Time was passing by really slow for Konstantin. He did not have much to do around the morgue. Just some basic cleaning now and then and guarding dead people so no one would steal them. He never understood this, yet he was the one who was doing this job. Dead ones' are not going to stand up and walk away, but judging from the things he saw in the Lost City, he believed that there is more beyond death. Standing up from his chair, he opened the window to clear the smoke. It was time to feed the dogs. They were the only living beings he liked to communicate with.

"Here you go, enjoy some fresh dead body parts." He found himself funny occasionally, so he caught himself smiling at this bad joke. Few more minutes passed by while he watched them eat until he heard his phone ringing in the office. Phone chatting was not his favourite thing to do. With a fast pace, he reached his office and phone handle.

On the other side of the wall, two men were making an effort to jump over the fence.

"Help me a little bit”, said one of them, “So I can jump across and unlock the gate for you.”

"Be aware of the dogs, don't die stupidly", said the other one as he kneeled to make a bridge for his companion to jump.

"I have survived worse things, trust me." He jumped swiftly on the top of the rock fence to check on the dogs. They were secured. As he landed, they started to bark uncontrollably but could not go further from their leash. He unlocked the gate, fast, as the other one came into the backyard.

"Go on, let's finish this. Convince him but be careful."

The younger man nodded as he looked at enraged animals.

"Easy...we are just friends...", said the man as he slowly walked towards the morgue door, making sure that no one sees him. "Fuckin' dogs."

### (★★★)

"Konstantin, is everything alright down there?"

"Yes, everything is under control", he said, closing his eyes as he heard his dogs barking.

He hated this. What was this man thinking? That he was an idiot who could not feed two dogs and guard properly, all night long? The authority of someone worthless to him was a nightmare. But he needed this job. No other employers wanted him because he was looking too 'scary' for them or the community. He tried with several gas stations and markets, but all they saw in him was a 45 years man, with a scarred cheek and severely deep, dry voice. He looked like a serial killer, although he was, technically, a former one.

"Okay, keep it up like that. I will call later to check again."

He was holding himself so hard from slamming the phone. This dude was getting on his nerves.

"Fine."

When he finished the call, he found his hands trembling. Another cigarette was much-needed at this point. His nervous system suffered a lot. He finally understood Ana and her smoking habit. His hand was calmer now, and he nervously brought it through his messy hair up to his face, with his eyes closed. And just then, when he was doing his cigarette meditation, he heard a small cling noise behind his back in the morgue. He turned around and smiled. _'I am going insane, finally'_ , he thought. As he turned around again to take another smoke, the clang came back louder this time. He jumped a bit as his cigarette fell on the ground.

Facing the half-dark hallway with dead bodies, he could not see properly further from his office. He stomped his cigarette in a hurry and took his gun out. He was not scared, but rather he was excited about some action. This poor one who decided to steal a body today picked the wrong date to do so. He was looking for someone to beat up. Passing through the hallway cautiously, he was thinking about what could happen. He obviously was not down for looking into dead naked bodies.

"I know you are here, so show yourself!" he yelled, frowning at the half-darkness.

Suddenly, his attention turned to one of the freezer doors. The unknown idiot hid in a dirty body freezer.

"Get out now!", he ordered, pointing his gun towards the small, square door.

When no one responded, he started to grow concerned. Was this a sick game? Or there was just a dead body having post-mortem reflexes. He needed to find out. He started to open the compartment door slowly. Halfway, someone pushed it back from the inside. He stepped back in shock and blinked twice. This time he came back and pushed the door open with his full force, to the point where a couple of door screws fell on the ground. He was ready for anything, but he was not prepared for what he saw at this moment.

There he was in his whole glory. His palms were supporting his head as he laid down. His lips were pouting with his eyes closed. Konstantin froze and looked at him in shock once again. He lowered his gun as his shocked face turned to a raging one.

"Missed me?", asked Rourke laughing at Konstantin's face.

He was battling so hard not to fall from leaning forward, pretending to want to kiss him. But Konstantin grabbed him by the collar of his coat and swiftly made him fall. Changing his mind, he lifted the poor laughing idiot back to his feet. 

"What the fuck are you doing here?" He asked him in half-whisper dangerously close to his face, to the point where Rourke could feel his anger and his hot breath on his face.

Rourke laughed and shook Konstantin's hands off him to fix his collar and coat before he spoke.

"Nice dogs you have out there, bro."

"Don't bro me Rourke, talk! What do you want? Did you come to take revenge from Trinity's side? If so, get the hell out of here before it's too late. I am not in the mood tonight!" he threatened him raising his voice.

"Shhh....calm down, you will wake up the dead," Rourke said while looking around pretending as they could hear them. "Don't worry, pal. I came to rescue you. We need you."

"Need me? Why? How did you know that I am even alive?"

"Dude, we are specialists, and you are asking this. No doubt this place ate your brain cells. Come on! We are wasting time here, and the doctor is waiting outside by the gate."

"Dominguez? Is he here too? And you two need me? No. I am done with Trinity for good. I have lost too much back in my days working for them." Konstantin said, annoyed, gun still pointed at Rourke's chest.

Rourke grabbed the gun, pushing it away from his chest.

"I can offer you more than you have now, more than what you have lost, my friend. It is only a matter of time. If you don't accept this offer, you will regret it. So, now let's go. This is getting on my nerves, and don't point your toy gun at me. I actually survived savages in Mexico. Let's get moving."

He looked at Rourke for a while, trying to process everything. He was getting used to this calm lifestyle he managed to build. Getting Involved with Trinity again was not going to do him any good, and he knew that. But on the other side, he longed for his duties. For the rifle in his hands. For adrenalin. He was this type of person, even if he was more on the reserved side.

With his mind still unclear if he wanted this, he started to follow Rourke out. Suddenly, Rourke turned around and looked at him.

"One last thing...", he murmured as his fist flew across Konstantin's face.

Konstantin almost lost his balance as his head turned around from the force of the punch. He looked shocked and enraged at the commander.

"This was an old wish I had, but I could not make it happen. Now that we are out of Trinity... oh man! It feels so good to punch you!"

Smiling with satisfaction, Rourke prepared for Konstantin's returning punch, but as soon as Konstantin lifted his fist, Dominguez interrupted them.

"I leave you two alone for fifteen minutes, and you are already starting to kill each other. Let's get moving, gentlemen. Konstantin, you coming with us, aren't you?"

Both commanders looked at him and then at each other, with Rourke winked mockingly at Konstantin, who was battling once again his urge to break his bones. Instead, he picked up another cigarette and lighted it as he caught the pace with the doctor.

 _'This is going to be a very fucked up ride'_ , he thought, _'straight to Hell.'_

**Visuals**

****

** Morgue dogs **

**Rourke's hiding spot**

** **

** Cigarettes in the office **

** Dominguez  **

** Rourke seeing Konstantin **


	2. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐦𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫

Three men were walking down the empty England streets that cold night. The street lights in the area where they were passing by were dim and gloomy. Hurried footsteps and rain were only two things that could be heard. None of them said a word. The tension was more than visible between them. They knew that if they do not start their journey carefully, they could kill each other. Konstantin assumed that Rourke is one of the doctor’s favourites, so he decided to be very careful with his words. His cheek was still burning from the recent punch he got.

Rourke was smirking, and he did not even bother to hide it. Occasionally, his gaze would travel towards his ally's face, which looked blank most of the time. He could see that his companion was on the edge of his nerves. The commander knew that Konstantin could mask his rage well. Throughout the time they spent together, he learned more about Konstantin than anyone else ever did. All the emotions were hiding behind his gloomy eyes and stony face. At this exact moment, they were wide open and dangerous. If Konstantin even knew what Rourke did to his sister, it could be potentially deadly for him. So, he decided to keep that matter for himself. The longer, the better. 

After an hour of walking and uncomfortable silence, the doctor stopped in front of an old building. He looked at his companions and took out a key to unlock the door. They entered inside a small flat that was terribly smelling of stinky feet and cigarette smoke.

"Well, gentlemen, consider yourselves at home. Take a seat and excuse the smell... I have a bad habit...", said Dominguez as he glanced at Konstantin for the moment. "I'll open the window for a while, and then we can talk through everything. “

Rourke frowned and threw himself in the nearest armchair, as his friend remained unseated, watching closely over doctors and his actions. He was feeling unsafe and confused, but he did not have anything else to lose. If the offer is more than enough to provide him with a proper home and food followed by some peace, he would gladly accept it. He has been living in a small, rented room for quite some time now, which hid most of his dark thoughts and a couple of attempts to end his life. Finally, he managed to ask what he wanted the whole trip.

"I never imagined that you two were alive. I was aware of your actions in Mexico but never thought that you two could survive. To what do I own this pleasure to work with you, doctor? “, he said as he leaned on a small dresser beside him.

"My boy, we were surprised as well when we got the information that you are alive. Just don't get me wrong... I always liked your company. “

A weak smile was spreading across Pedro's face. Another long silence broke between the three men in the room. Rourke looked at them as he watched the most amusing thing in the world, barely hiding his cheeky smile behind his palm.

"I didn't really like the way our conversation started at first...", said Konstantin with a touch of acid in his voice. He smelled something troublesome behind these 'friendly' words.

"We are all in this together. The High Council made a living hell out of our lives after our failed missions. We were left with nothing after all this time spent with the Trinity. Rourke and I were discussing what we could do to regain our power and pride. It will not be easy, so that means we need one more brain in this. I know in what position you were put in after the time you spent in the hospital as well, my dear Konstantin. I believe our goals will cross the same path in that case, of course, if you want to be part of our team. “

Konstantin looked in disbelief. These two morons wanted to go against the biggest brain of all their operations back then, and they thought they could actually stand a chance. He shook his head at this thought.

"I think that you are taking a bigger bite than you can chew, doctor. I am afraid that I would be of no help to you two. This plan is not even realistic. We have neither men nor weapons. How are we even supposed to get close to them under these conditions?"

Rourke rolled his eyes at him.

"Calm down, buddy... we are going to find all of that. We need your assistance in this operation. I was against it, too, to be completely honest. No offense, my old friend, but you were not on my PR list of death in this mission. “

"Enough, Rourke. Regardless of what he said, I decided to give you another chance."

Rourke frowned and got up, making his way to the small window.

"What do you think? We will provide everything that we need as soon as possible and, in fact, tonight we have a meeting with a weapon dealer. I know how much you have suffered and lost, commander. You deserve to be happy again... ", said Dominguez with eyes full of hope.

He needed him. He was the only one besides Rourke who had proper knowledge in operation leadership. They were about to do some serious and dangerous things that could kill them all, but they were less possible without him.

At the doctor's mention of a happy life, Konstantin once again found himself in silent grief. One characteristic thing for him was when he would think about life, his gaze would fell on the ground. His happiness was his sister, which he did not have anymore.

"If I could only find out who killed her, if only...I would torture them until they meet the same end. “

Dominguez looked at him, and then at Rourke, who was by the window, looking at the rainy night. They will be in big trouble if he ever found out what they plotted. In the end, Ana was useless for anything further with her lung cancer. They thought that Konstantin was dead and decided to take the chance and end her life as well. This was a mistake considering the whole situation, which could cause a lot of unwanted trouble.

"I'm sure you will find this person... no worries, pal “, said Rourke, with his back turned to the other two soldiers as a strand of his black hair fell across his eyes.

The truth was that he was actually afraid of being exposed. This was not the smartest thing he did in his entire career. Suddenly, he noticed something strange beside a nearby building. Someone was trying and failing to keep themselves hidden behind it, or maybe it was his imagination playing a joke on him. It was strange how paranoid he became after their last operation. His nights were more or less restless, as his brain played the old memories, like a broken movie, every time he closed his eyes. This naked woman with monstrous teeth was haunting him. To be more precise, he was terrified of what he saw. But regardless of this ugly memory, he still liked women. A lot. And the only thing he was missing when he was apart of operations were women. He did not consider himself a womanizer, but he could not deny that many ladies fell for his charm. He was an excellent liar and manipulator, and he was proud of the fact that he could have any woman he wanted. Once in a while, he would find someone to fulfil his needs, but never got attached. For all he knew, he never fell in love with anyone. This was an unknown field for him. According to his age, he was more than ready for family life. The point was that he could not care less for it. His main goal was above all the normal things that he could accomplish. And now, more than ever, he felt the need to regain his power.

After some time and brooding, Konstantin agreed to the plan. All the rage he was feeling must be used for the best cause.

"Perfect! Welcome officially to our team! As soon as possible, you will regain a commander title again, I promise, lad “, said Dominguez while getting closer to Konstantin and tapping him on the shoulder.

"Let's get moving, gentlemen. We cannot be late for our appointment. Rocky will not wait for us for too long. Besides, keep an eye for the police around cause they are active at these hours on the streets. “

And just like that, the three men left the apartment, not knowing that someone was actually watching over them the whole time just around the corner of the street.

They locked the apartment and looked carefully around. Rourke's gaze wandered a little bit longer on that corner on the street where he thought he saw someone hiding, but soon he gave up and turned on his heels.

### (★★★)

The figure that was present and hiding climbed on a bike, riding towards the opposite side. Despite being a little dim, the street lights did not fail to reveal the face of a young woman who was trying desperately to grab her phone.

 _’Come on, pick up, please...’_ , she thought.

Tears were filling her eyes from all the thoughts that messed around with her mind while the cold wind hit her face. Everyone she has ever loved in her life was situated in this area. Finally, the other side picked up the call.

"Jonah, you will not believe who I saw when I was returning home from the session... Is it too late to come to your place? I think that we might be in danger Jonah...again... “

"You okay? You sound very disturbed... come over as quick as you can." 

"I am almost there... Oh, Jonah, I think that history might repeat... Not here...not under these conditions...I am not ready to lose someone again." 

"If this is what I think it is...God damn. We will discuss it when you come. I will tell Abby to prepare some calming tea. Everything will be fine. Please, don't be sad, little bird. I can hear it in your voice... ", said the worried man on the other side of the phone.

"I know...this looks like it will never end."

She was so angry with herself that she could not come closer to the building and hear what they were talking about, but she was certain who she saw in front of this door. And they were pretty much alive and well for her liking. She knew that once they unite, it will become an absolute nightmare, and she was barely recovering from all she has gone through in the past.

**Visuals**

****

**Konstantin's rented room**

****

**Rainy London streets**

****

**Lara on a bike**

****

**Rourke is listening to K and D**


	3. 𝐇𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭

It is considered that people had bad luck if they find themselves in the streets during cold times, homeless. Thousands of them experience the same around the world. Particularly in London, you could see many of them trying to stay alive. On the cold nights, they would usually gather together around metal barrels and start a fire. The struggle to stay warm was real.

"Hm... I am glad that I did not become one of them after all that shit happened. ", said the dark-haired commander.

The two other men noticed homeless people around them, who were starring, with stretched arms. They expected some money from the three soldiers, who were not really that different from them at that moment. They barely were surviving too. Staring in a fire while they were walking, an awful memory awoke in Konstantin's head.

_ Flashback: _

_"Put him on the table... he almost stopped breathing! Dear Lord, it is a miracle that he is still alive!"_

_"Doctor, I think we need to put him under full aesthetic first! I'm not sure he can endure the pain from being moved around... What do you say?"_

_"If he managed to survive that fire pit back there and the helicopter transportation to the hospital, he should be fine. Just be careful... we need to move him slowly. Interns, come here and help me out! We have a second degree burned patient with a deep partial-thickness burn here!"_

_"Okay, on the count of three, move him on the table…one...two...three!"_

_ End of the flashback._

That was all that he remembered from the night he got rescued. Quickly before he could process anything else happening in the hospital, he passed out. His body was weak. His brain gradually started to shut down due to blood loss. The sentence that was keeping him alive was the last one he heard from Lara. _'Go to hell'._ He had flashbacks of the most memorable moments from his life. His sister giving him support and warm smiles every time he felt like giving up. Him waking up and screaming from pain in his hands, and feeling proud of thinking that God chose him. His first promotion to the higher class in Trinity and his first speech to his own soldiers. His and Ana's small apartment where they lived apart from their duty. He felt her perfume in his nostrils. It was a lavender scent tainted with burned flesh and blood, which was present in that moment.

He remembered Croft. He felt anger surging within his chest. Consciously, he knew that she did not deserve to be in his memories, but his brain decided to include her in his 'last film'. He also remembered Rourke trying to flirt with his sister, and that was when he felt like he was going to destroy the whole Trinity base and everybody inside of it. He remembered how angry he was, to the point where he grabbed Ana by her hand and pulled her forcefully behind him, growling at Rourke. Only a couple of seconds were deciding his fate. If it were not for the High Council who walked inside the room at that moment, Konstantin would have taken his gun out and shot Rourke right in the centre of his head. He wouldn't care about what happened in the aftermath. All he ever cared about truly was Ana. He never let her go alone unprotected and exposed in any mission. He was always behind her, like her shadow. And he thought that he was crazy as well and overprotective. But she was everything he had.

Their parents left them long before they could even know who they were. So, he was missing some basic human emotions that people with regular families had. He never felt guilty or sad, except when his sister was screaming in pain from her cancer. He never fell in love with women. He did not know how to show love to others. Over the years, he built a strong façade around him that was also showing on his face. Many women tried to approach him in his younger days, but he never showed any further interest in them. He appeared cold to everyone. To his soldiers too. They did respect him more than other leaders from Trinity, simply because you could never tell what he could do next. He was merciless. With ease, he could kill a soldier who would make a mistake and not blink twice. Most of them were fearing of him.

After all that happened, Konstantin could not believe that he agreed to work with Rourke once again. He glanced at him as the three of them walked down the streets.

His train of thoughts stopped once he heard Dominguez speaking to them unclearly.

"Fuckin' hell. I hope we are not late; he might be gone by now. We need these weapons..." he said under his breath.

He took a cigarette box and picked one up with his mouth. His hand extended the pack to Konstantin's side, offering him to take one. The commander took it with pleasure. The urge to take smoke was very high at this point. He needed to calm his mind down.

"I don't smoke, thank you, doctor", said Rourke with his hands in the pockets. Dominguez glanced at his mocking companion.

"Well, if you smoked, maybe you would be smarter with your words in some hectic situations. Consider starting, commander."

Rourke rolled his eyes and glanced away.

"Aye, captain. Tell me more about that dude Rocky. I never heard of him, and I know almost all the best dealers out there."

"Almost. You said it correctly. He is one of a kind. But he has a really short temper, and he is really picky about punctuality. Once upon a time, they say that someone exposed him to the police. That person got shots in his chest and one directly to his head. The first ten shots were for ten months he waited for his payment for the weapons he sold to him. And the eleventh one, in the head, was because he talked to the police about Rocky's dealings."

Both former commanders looked at each other as Rourke whistled, visibly surprised.

"I did not expect an urban legend to come from only one simple question I asked. Don't mind me, but it made me realize that we could end up like that poor lad. With what money are we supposed to pay for entire ammunition, sir? I almost run out of all my savings, and our beloved Konstantin here was working in the morgue... well not anymore", he said while crossing his gaze with his partner in arms, which returned him a questionable look as well.

The doctor laughed weakly, moving ahead of them both.

"You forgot, obviously, who I am. I would not make a deal that could put us in any danger. We have a lot of other enemies grasping for our heads already. Did you two thought that the Trinity would let us live if they knew we were still alive?"

They stopped for a moment to face each other. Dominguez shook his head in negation, smiling.

"We would be dead, my friends. This is not child's play. We need to eliminate them. Those above us. They may think that they lost us, but others are positioned in our places. And they won't stop until they conquer the World... all of us know this fact. They won't cry and mourn us. If we don't do it, we are putting our lives in danger. And, imagine this...what we could get from this...money...glory...everything we have ever dreamed of."

These words echoed through the younger guy's ears. To a certain extent, they knew that maybe, they would be dead by now if the Trinity found out that they are alive, even if they were useless. But they have never seen the doctor with such fire and enthusiasm burning in his eyes before. They could not tell if this was fear speaking out of him or just a dry desire to get revenge for losing his whole life career. They remained silent.

"Trust me... we are on the right path ", said the doctor as he turned around and started to walk again.

After some time, they reached the meeting place. It looked like a regular, abandoned garage. "We are here, gentlemen."

### (★★★)

On the other side of the city, a young couple tried to calm down the young women who were anxiously sitting on the sofa, crying. Jonah and Abby were together for quite some time now. They lived in Jonah's flat, in the outskirts of London. It was much quieter than most of the places around. Naturally, people lived much simpler lives there, and in the night-time, you could not hear a lot of vehicles passing by. Except for occasional street fights, of course. Local, young thugs would be gathering in this part of the city, as well, despite the police who would check on their behaviour now and then.

Despite all that, Abby got used to this way of living, and together with her boyfriend, planned to build a future and a family there. She liked to wake up to the view of the green valley of this rural area. She loved fresh vegetables and fruits that she could have every day. The only thing that she was not fond of in London was Jonah's particular friend. Jonah had only two friends. One of them was Sam, who was currently at the mental facility. She met her once when they decided to visit her. Sam went through rough times, and Abby could not blame her or her faith. Making progress was slow for poor Samantha, but she looked way better than the first time she saw her there. The other Jonah's friend was Lara. She respected his friendships, but sometimes, they could be destructive. And she realized this after all the crazy things that happened in Mexico. She saw the pain in Jonah's eyes, and it tore her apart. This girl was too much. At first, she respected how Lara was brave and how much she helped her people. But when she realized that Lara started this whole apocalypse, she started to think more realistically about this girl. Jonah barely survived, and to be exact, he was dead once before. He would be ten feet underground if Jacob hasn't been there, according to his words. If this was called friendship-love...she was the Queen of England.

Lara lost her mind on the way to them. From the start, she was paranoid and talking about how Trinity was back and out there in London, seeking revenge. Abby did not like what she was hearing. Jonah, on the other hand, was worried about Lara's mental state. She was going to the psychologist for a couple of years now. But all he saw was her well put mask. Her anxiety and depression were showing from time to time. He had a feeling that he was a better psychologist to her than her actual one. The lack of communication between her doctor and her was not making anything easier for her. It was the fourth time this month that she came at their door, crying. But he still loved her, she was his companion, and they survived through a lot together.

"I'm so sorry, Jonah, for being a burden to you and Abby...I shouldn't have come tonight..." she said with a mug in her hands and an embarrassed folded head.

"Lara, don't talk like that. We are here for you, and you know that...", said Jonah, leaning forward to hug her back.

"I know, thank you both...If it isn't for you guys, I would be joining Sam 'til now."

"Don't say that. Lara…sometimes, life is throwing us numerous tests to see if we will be capable of living it. Maybe those idiots were not back for revenge...although it's hard to believe that, it could be possible. Don't let your anxiety overflow your mind, little bird. Maybe those men were not even who you think they were. And even if they are, we have gone through a lot together. We are strong... we won't let them hurt us..."

His girlfriend was sitting there, wishing that Jonah was kidding. She has been thinking to talk about this matter with him for some time but was constantly delaying. The fact that he was playing a sacrificial doll at this evil game was too much.

"Lara... maybe it is for the best if we don't poke the bear. Maybe we should let this slide...what if they don't even search for us?", she said, trying to convince her.

"I feel like they might be our enemies again. I have this gut feeling. I cannot shake it off. I am terrified to go back to the manor now, knowing that I am alone."

"Stay over tonight, but promise me that you will try to forget about it. Tomorrow is a new day and a new beginning. We will be cautious, of course, in case something strange happens in the following period. Those morons are not smarter than us."

Jonah was smiling warmly while he said this to Lara. She nodded and silently agreed with him. On the other side of the couch, Abby tried her best to hide her anger with Jonah.

"Okay, then, I will go to sleep first. Good night Lara, don't stay up for too long... it is pretty late already." With these words said, she turned around, leaving Lara and Jonah behind her back, as her fake smile fell from her face.

### (★★★)

"Those are functional? I mean, don't get me wrong, I need to check..."

"Do you want me to try it out for you, pretty Zorro?", asked Rocky as he pointed a riffle on Rourke, who was visibly regretting his question already.

"It's okay...I trust you...", he said while raising his hands in the air. Konstantin smirked as he sensed his companion's fear in the air.

"He, he...don't mind him, Rocky, he is talking nonsense...", Dominguez said, moving Rocky's hand with a weapon carefully away from the scared commander.

Rocky smiled widely, showing his gold front teeth, then shook his head.

"You are all the same. Same shit every month. You all want the best ammunition and weapons and never pay me back."

The doctor looked at the tattooed man, which cynically talked to them while checking out the riffle he was holding. Then he nodded to his allies to keep their tongues knotted.

"Uh...you see...we promised that we are going to pay double for them...", he said as Rourke and Konstantin's eyes opened wide in shock, not believing what they heard.

The doctor looked back at them and continued.

"And we keep our promises...Isn’t that right, lads?"

Both of them looked confused but managed to nod in return. Rocky raised his eyes on them and smirked once again.

"Domi, where did you found these two beauties? They look lost", said the tattooed guy to the doctor.

He suddenly walked to them and started to check both commanders from head to toe, to judge if they were worthy of his guns. Rourke froze as he faked his calmness. On the other hand, Konstantin looked the creepy guy directly in the eyes, leaning on the nearby wall.

"No... uh...they are capable soldiers," said Dominguez with his eyes on Rocky's guard that was checking him out.

Rocky's gaze met Konstantin's. He stood there for some time, brooding about them. Then he finally broke the eye contact as he returned to where Dominguez was standing.

"Okay, then. Domi..." his hand roughly patted the doctors' shoulder, "I trust you."

The doctor's mouth just started to spread in a satisfied smile, just when the big guy spoke again.

"But if you three don't pay double, in a spawn of a year...Domi...Zorro will get a lot of holes in his pretty head, and the other one...Blondie...will also suffer the same. And you...",

he got closer to the doctor's face as he heard his loud gulp from his throat, "you don't even want to know Domi, what I will do to you."

With those words, he patted him roughly on the back again and finished their chat.

Dominguez looked small in comparison to Rocky's muscular body. He nodded slowly with his head and smiled nervously.

The commanders were standing there, feeling completely baffled. Then Rocky ordered his men to transport their whole purchase to the location the doctor gave them.

As soon as they walked out, Rourke grabbed Dominguez by his shoulder and started to push him to walk away from the garage as fast as possible. Konstantin was following them closely. Then, the commander grabbed his prisoner's coat by the collar and pushed him to the ground, pinning him down with one knee.

"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK WERE YOU PROMISING TO THEM?! AM I A JOKE TO YOU?" roared Rourke at the doctor's scared face.

"I can handle this! Trust me! Please, don't make a scene! His guards could be passing by...".

He did not manage to finish the sentence before noticing a fist forming to knock his head down. At the moment he thought that this would happen, Konstantin grabbed Rourke from behind and pulled him on his feet. There was his chance. Instead of Rourke hitting Dominguez, Konstantin gathered his whole strength, and he punched Rourke’s enraged face as hard as he could, causing him to fall on the ground, covering his bloody nose with his palms.

"I owed you this… stupid idiot," said Konstantin with his voice dangerously low.

His hands were trembling from all the anger and adrenalin that he was feeling at that moment. Mechanically, he lighted another cigarette.

**Visuals**

****

**Homeless people warming themselves**

****

**Young Ana from Konstantin's memory**

****

**Doctors saving K's life after a fight with Lara**

****

**Jonah's and Abby's** ** neighbourhood **

** **

** Rocky **


	4. 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

“You dick!”, cried the fallen soldier while the doctor got up on his feet.

He brushed his clothes of dirt swiftly and sent a nasty look towards Rourke, who was rolling on the dirty ground. Konstantin was sitting on the nearby bench, staring at nothing while his cigarette was almost burned out.

"I will tell you this only once! Control your temper! I already told you that I have a plan! We will be able to pay for all of this ammunition and to have much more besides this!" yelled Dominguez.

It was unbelievable for him what just happened. For for the longest he would consider himself as their leader. And the fact that this moron jumped on him was getting on his nerves.

"Absolutely disgusting!" he continued. "You are not reliable at all! Thank God I have other teams joining us because otherwise, I would go insane with you two."

The doctor's last sentence shook Konstantin from his thoughts. He looked at him surprised; eyebrows furrowed.

"Do you really think that I am the same as him?" he asked the doctor, with an offended voice. "I never said this before, but I think that you made a mistake in choosing him to be your left hand and leaving me only with a field commander title. If you thought back then, doctor, maybe we could do something successfully. This dumbass is good only for chasing women."

Rourke laid down, still holding on to his broken nose. The bleeding was not that intense, but he felt the pain intensifying with every second. He wanted to get up and beat them both, but he was unsuccessful. His back was refusing to get up as gravity pulled him down, once again.

"That might be correct, but I see you two as equals. I have never divided anything between you two because both of you have a unique ability. Our failure was not because of Rourke's mistakes but because we were going blindly into the unknown. Croft's fault too. She might be an obstacle if she knew we were alive."

Dominguez was frustrated after he failed in Mexico. He never expected that a girl could be that powerful. He underestimated her. But on the happier side, he was glad that he was alive and that two of his best men were beside him at that moment. On the other hand, Konstantin wanted to rip her limbs apart. Mostly because he did not know what happened with Ana in the end, and he assumed she killed his sister. The information that Ana was shot came to him when he was in the hospital.

“Did she shot Ana?” the blonde commander suddenly asked the doctor, leaving him unprepared for the question.

"Uh…yeah. We found Ana dead when we arrived after Croft left. There's no other explanation", he said with his eyes wandering around, pretending that he was checking out if someone was spying on them. "Okay, we had a nice chat, now let's go to our facility. It will be for the best if we catch some sleep before others arrive…"

“Who are the others?”

“You will see once they arrive, Konstantin. Jason, get up on your feet, for God’s sake! You are not dying!”

Nobody called Rourke by his first name. His eyes flew towards the doctors’ arm, which was offering him help.

"No need for that, I'll get up by myself", Rourke tried to shout but failed. After a couple of minutes, he got up on his feet, and the three of them left.

### (★★★)

The next morning, Lara decided to visit Sam. Unfortunately, she was not that often there for Sam as she wanted to be. Her whole mental state refused to let her stay inside the mental institution, unbothered. Deep inside, she was afraid that she might be the patient there too. Her friend went through hell, and still, she was managing to keep a smile on her face.

“Morning, miss. Please go through a scan", said a security guard to Lara.

She did this procedure a hundred times by now, but she was still feeling anxious every time she passed through. The feeling that she was carrying a gun was there all the time, even if she knew that she was clean.

"Done. The same corridor as before, fourth door to the left", said the guard. "Have a good day."

"Thanks, you too."

She brought some fresh flowers for Sam. If there was one thing that reminded her of Sam, it was flowers. She was a big flower lover, and Lara wanted to make this journey easier for her. Apart from that, she was making great progress. She was in a much better place than a couple of years before. She was ready to knock on the door of Sam's room when she heard the doctor talking to her.

"This is all good…let's see…great! All analyses are good, once again. And, because you are making such good progress with a psychologist, we could dismiss you in a month or two. Just keep it up like this, Samantha", said the doctor as she saw Lara in the doorway. "Oh, look, your friend is here! I'll be leaving you two now."

"Sam! I am so glad to hear this!", said Lara to her friend, giving her a big hug. "Sorry, I did not want to eavesdrop, but I was already at the door."

"It's okay, Lara... you are my friend. You are allowed to know everything".

It seemed like forever for her in this place. She was happy to hear that she will be out soon and see her friend. All of this made her eyes glisten with tears.

“Oh no, no…don’t cry please, we should celebrate instead.”

"I'm sorry, I am just overwhelmed, and this is the first good thing that is going to happen to me in a while. Also, I am happy to see you. Come, let's have a sit".

Her friend put the flowers she brought in a vase and placed herself beside her.

"How are you, Sam? I'm sorry for not coming frequently... I wanted but…"

“Don’t worry, please, I don’t expect you to spend your whole free time with me. But enough about me, you look…sad? Are you okay?”

She wanted so badly to tell Sam what she saw last night but remembered that this could trigger her fears.

"I am fine, just as usual, a bit tired." Sam looked at her like she sensed her lying. "Seriously, I am fine." Lara tried to fake a smile, and her friend chose to pretend as she believed her.

"How's Jonah and Abby? They were here to visit me a month ago… I hope there is no trouble in paradise…"

“They are good…I’m kind of a bother to them. I have been there every time I felt down for the longest time…it’s not good.”

“What is not good is that you three were throwing a party, without me”, said Sam through a faking mad voice.

“We will all celebrate once you are out of here, I promise.”

Lara insisted, trying to pacify her friend. She sat there for a while, in silence, just enjoying her friends’ company. This reminded her that she was not alone in this world. Even though she felt happy, something else was on her mind at the time. And it bothered her.

“Okay, I’m going now…Need to make something to eat at the manor.”

“A sandwich with a tuna, perhaps?” asked her friend while laughing, knowing that Lara is an awful cook. Lara laughed at her mocking and gently hit her on her shoulder before hugging her.

"It was nice seeing you, Sam. Please take care. I'll be coming back as soon as I can again."

"Don't lie to me... you come only when you are bored."

“Sam…”

"I'm joking! Okay, see you later, send hugs to Jonah and his girl."

"I will."

With one last hug, she left. She needed to make a defence plan. Just in case.

### (★★★)

“Do you like it?”

"A lot, like I was teaching you how to cook it. I could not ask for a better girl...", said Jonah with a chicken drumstick in his hand.

"Don't make me fall for you, again...." returned Abby with a grin, blushing. "How was work today?"

“Boring, I feel like I can’t open my eyes from the number of onions I cut. What about you?”

"Same as always, stressful, and slow."

Abby had a hard time fitting in with the 'real world', outside her small village in Mexico. She thought that it would be the same with others as she met Jonah. Easy, fun, and simple. But Jonah was a simple guy. With a warm heart. The outside world was too cold for her liking. Everybody was in a hurry. Everybody was trying to use others. And that was the moment she remembered Jonah's friend. There was the conversation she wanted to do for the longest time now, and it was never among her daily tasks. Or it was fear. Fear of ruining her relationship with her boyfriend. Somehow, she managed to gather some strength to speak upon this.

“Hey…I don’t know if it’s a good time for this, but I need to talk to you about something.”

Jonah looked up at her face, surprised.

“No, don’t say it.” Abby was surprised as well as his face were. “I know what it is”, said Jonah with eyes wide open.

“You know?” asked his girlfriend, confused.

"Yes…you are pregnant!" He claimed to grab her free hand that was on the table where they had lunch.

She giggled at this. It was very adorable to her that he wanted a baby so much. They would often talk about this, but it was too painful for Abby. Despite her small chance to have a child, they decided to keep on trying until they made it. And she hated when she disappointed him. But there was something else on her mind that needed to be discussed.

“Sorry…”

“Oh”, he said, bowing his head down, visibly sad.

“I wanted to talk about something else, Jonah.”

“What is it?”

“I don’t know how to start, honestly. Jonah…I have known you for a long time now…and…”

“And?”, he asked, anticipating her words.

“And…I know that you are a good person. But sometimes, you give more of yourself than you should…”

"What do you mean? Did I bore you with the cuddles?", he asked, smiling, and she could not resist smiling back. It was hard to have a serious talk with him most of the time.

“Don’t get me wrong. I love you, and you know that I adore your bear hugs. But, in my opinion, you are prone to give so much out of yourself for others…”

“Ah, are you jealous that I work?”

"No, God no…" she said, laughing. "I will be completely transparent. After I met Lara, I feel like she has been using you for her dangerous games. And I don't like it. I understand that she may be in some type of trouble from time to time or feel down, and yes, then is when we should help her. But if it involves dangerous murderers on the journey…I don’t really think that it is clever to follow her.”

There was an awkward silence for a couple of seconds. He furrowed his brows. He knew what she wanted to tell him, and he knew that it was not a good thing that he was with Lara in every danger she was involved in. Lara was his old friend. And he was a capable man as well. Well, in most situations.

"Abby…I understand that you are concerned. You need to keep in mind that this girl is one of my oldest friends. She has the heart of steel, and she could not be easily buried in the cold ground. If you worry that something bad would happen…then you don't know me."

His girlfriend sat there, processing every word he said. Anger rose slowly in her with every new word.

“But you were dead. How is this not the worst that could happen?”

"Yeah, I was, but I was rescued, as well. I shouldn't have told you this. Is that the reason you are bothered with Lara? She was there, trying to save me…"

"I understand, Jonah, but please understand me too…Think about our future. Will it be good if something bad happens to either of us?"

“Nothing bad will happen. Don’t think this way. If I did not know you better, I would say that you are jealous of her…”

She decided to stay quiet on this. It was not completely false. It also bothered her that they are too close, almost like a couple. There was a lot about their friendship she did not know. Every time they joked about the old times, she felt like an outsider. They had their own language and easily could understand what the another would think with a look. She did envy them for this. But also, she wanted to have a quiet life after all trauma that happened in the past.

"Sorry…let's finish lunch", she said, focusing on her food.

### (★★★)

In northern England, an old facility was filled with masked men, coming in and out with big wooden boxes.

“Put it there, lads, be careful”.

The masked men looked at the old soldier but said no word. They were too disciplined to speak with Rocky’s clients. The doctor, on the other hand, was intimidated by those men. They were all tall, tattooed, and wore black from head to toe. His seller surely taught them some good trading manners.

“He is still sleeping”, said Konstantin behind the doctor. He did not expect his companion behind him, so he turned sharply, almost having a heart attack.

“Jesus Christ!”

“Sorry, he’s busy.”

“Very funny! Why are you sneaking behind me? I forgot how light your footing was. You almost gave me a heart attack. I was talking with those guys all morning, and truth to be told, it felt like I was talking to myself most of the time.”

"Easy, doctor. If I wanted to murder you both, I would have done it last night...", said Konstantin as he watched Rocky's capable people carrying big boxes with weapons, making it look easy.

Dominguez felt uneasy as he realized that he had a big reason to do it, but he did not know anything.

“How’s Rourke?”

“Do I look like a babysitter?”

“No, er…you were last to wake up, so I’m checking. How’s his nose?”

The commander stayed silent for a while. He hated that punk.

"He will be fine. When are the others coming? You said that other troops would join us."

"Ah yes, they are on the way. They will be here before night. And you two need to be polite, no fighting."

“I am sure they would fight him too if they knew him.”

"Ladies won't do unnecessary actions", said the doctor as his ally looked at him in surprise.

“What?”

"Oh, I never mentioned this, but…it is a special force from Russia that was involved in Trinities operations and politics. Long story short, they stopped cooperating with Trinity after their last fall that involved our beloved Jason and me."

"Are you serious? You made a deal with…. a…a troop of women? Is this a joke?", Konstantin asked, raising his voice. He did not want to be slowed down, nor he liked it. And he could not think that those women were capable of doing even basic things, like shooting.

"You are wrong. They are highly trained people, maybe better than everyone we could pick out there. And I have the first mission for you and Rourke, once he wakes up. You two need to form our troop of men also. The more, the merrier. And iron your military suits, don't be ugly, I may marry you two."

He tapped Konstantin on his uniform, joking with him. But the commander was beyond furious. He grabbed Dominguez's hand and gripped it too hard. The doctor cried out a bit.

"Don't you dare to do or say something stupid. Don't you fucking dare…"

Konstantin released his hand as he saw that he was hurting him too much. The doctor was in agony. Then, his angry friend turned to walk away. Rourke stood by the door, watching the whole scene. He whistled at Konstantin's last words as he passed by, enraged.

“I feel a lot better now, thank you, doctor”, said Rourke, winking at him.

"Get out of my sight", said the doctor, who was gripping his hand in pain.

The blond commander was already outside, with a cigarette in his hand. He was contemplating what he has got himself into. Every doctor's word echoed through his head as the rain fell upon him. And he felt like his head was getting bigger and bigger with every other thought.

Just when he reached the point where he decided to let it go, for now, he saw someone on the bike, passing by on the other side of the road. Someone who was too familiar to him. It lasted only a few seconds, and it was enough for him to realize who it was. It was her. His hands started to tremble from the rage. With a glance, he saw a van parked outside their facility. He got inside and was lucky enough to find a key also in the vehicle. Turning the key on as quickly as possible, he hit the road.

**Visuals**

****

**Rourke with broken nose**

****

**Sam in her hospital room**

****

**Abby talking to Jonah over lunch**

****

**Rocky's people**


	5. 𝐁𝐚𝐝 𝐥𝐮𝐜𝐤

_'I have a bad feeling about this'_ , thought the young woman as she rode the bike.

The weather was slowing her down. For her entire life, she has been immune to the coldness and wetness of her home town. But in the last few years, everything changed. The cold suddenly bothered her a lot more, and she could not stand it. She was looking forward to lighting some fire in the fireplace of her manor. The entire ride, she was trying to figure out what to do in case Trinity came after her once again. The fact that her mental state was not so good gave her a lump in her throat, knowing that she won't be prepared as the last time they met. Little did she knew that not very far behind her was one of her enemies.

Konstantin drove the van very carefully. He knew that he needed to wait for her to stop at some point or otherwise, it will be visible to the police or others that he was chasing her. His patience was leaking out. The urge to find out what she did to his sister was killing him. One part of his daily prayers involved his wish to find Lara, to punish her. In the past, he went several times to the manor, sneaking inside, but had no luck in finding her. His job also making it harder as he was working most of the nights. And, judging by her direction, she was heading towards her home. _'Good'_ , he thought. Now was his time. There was God out there for him too.

They were getting closer to the manor. The young woman stopped in front of the manor, securing her bike. He was at a good distance from her, making sure that the van was not in sight. She approached the door and looked around. Her gut feeling never let her think that she was completely safe there. And on this particular day, she felt like throwing up. Seeing Sam was a drop of happiness that she needed from time to time. Those methods were not helpful in her recovery, but she found it more enjoyable than sitting in an armchair, across from her psychiatrist for three long hours. Lara got inside and locked the door behind her. She took a deep breath and went to refresh herself.

The commander waited for her to get caught in her own trap. He checked his gun holster, which was around his thigh. It was empty.

"Fucking hell", he whispered angrily to himself.

It would have been easier if he had a fully loaded gun, but this would not stop him from breaking in. He sneaked into her backyard, making sure he stay hidden. The only useful thing he found that could be used as a weapon was an old, rusty crowbar. The manor was giving him bad memories. Every time he went inside, he remembered that his sister also walked once there, collecting information and seducing Lord Croft. He has always been against that plan. On the other hand, Ana never saw a problem with that operation. To him, it looked like she really was in love with this man. Often, Konstantin would talk to her about how bad it was to get attached to Lara's father, especially when, at the end of the day, Trinity wanted him dead. He did not want her to end up hurt. And there he was, standing alone at the end of the road.

The door turned out locked.

 _'Of course, she locked behind..._ '.

Then, he turned around to find the window he actually mastered opening in his previous visits. He was wondering if she saw that this particular window was showing signs of breaking in. Then, he carefully got in. The room was her fathers' study. The doors inside were wide opened, all the time, and he thought it was extremely stupid of her to leave them like that. He sneaked out of the room, checking his surroundings. When he reached the doorknob of the hallway door, he heard footsteps on the other side and froze. It was not fear. The idea was to catch her off the guard, unprepared. When the footsteps became distant, he slowly opened the door and got out. The house was too confusing to him at first, and he kept on going in circles, but after a couple of break-ins, he learned.

Lara went downstairs to her living room. The fire in the chimney surely went off while she was away, and the big house was feeling like a freezer. Her fingers were hardly moving as she slowly put some woods inside the old fireplace. ' _Come on... please burn'_. After a couple of tries, she finally managed to lit it.

Shortly after she started the fire, she placed herself on the nearest sofa, holding a cup of tea in her small hands. The ceiling was leaking right behind her sofa, and she could feel the tingles every time a new drop hit the half-full bucket, which collected the rain. It relaxed her, and it was the one reason she did not have the celling fixed, even if the coldness was unbearable sometimes.

Her old enemy was upstairs, observing her from the upper floor. It was a perfect opportunity for him to approach her from behind. He slowly climbed down the stairs, plotting the ambush. He tried to move as quietly as possible, and if there were no thunder and rain to be louder than his walk, he would be spotted by now. When he finally got closer, he thought about how to do it. It was not an easy job for him, after all. Once before, she defeated him, and it hurt his pride way too much.

Lara felt rather odd at this moment. The knot was back in her stomach as her thoughts run wild. 'I need some food before I think of what I should do to stop them'. Right in the moment when she placed her cup on the side table and got on her feet, a pair of strong arms grabbed her and pulled her down. She felt a cold metal bar across her throat and a hand grabbing her hair, twisting it behind, pulling a couple of hairs from her scalp. She was completely unarmed at this moment, and all she felt was utter horror. Then, a cold and dry voice spoke to her ear, and a very familiar voice hit her like a bullet.

"You thought that you killed me, didn't you?" said Konstantin, pulling her hair even harder.

He did not shout; he rather spoke calmly, with pure hate coating his voice. It felt so good that she was finally in his hands.

"What happened, Croft? You forgot how to speak, maybe?"

“Konstantin…what do you want?”, she somehow managed to speak with a strangled voice from the pressure of the crowbar under her chin.

“You know what I came for…talk. What did you do to my sister?”

“Nothing…” Lara said as he pushed her throat against the metal even harder, making her cough and choke.

"Don't lie to me!" he yelled, and then he spoke back in his usual manner, once again. "It's brave of you if you think that this time you'll get away like the last time."

She was trying to break free from his grip, but he was way too strong for her. Tears were rolling down her cheeks from the chokehold. He saw that she might die if he kept going, so he removed the crowbar and pulled her hair to get up from the sofa to face him. Her ponytail got loose, and she looked messy. He liked what he saw. Red face, fear in her bloody eyes, and loss of strength. The power he felt over her filled him with pure satisfaction, making him smirk at her expression. Who would have ever thought that the face of someone who destroyed his life looked like that? His other hand cupped her face, pulling her closer to make her look in his eyes.

“One last time…did you kill Ana?”

Lara was torn. She did not come to the idea of what she could do to free herself. She felt helpless. The face of her rival has never been that dangerous to her before, until then. Her hands were on his arms, her nails digging in his jacket.

“I did not do anything…please…”

"So, you decided to die then. This is for my sister, Lara. No hard feelings. See you in Hell."

At that moment, he did not care anymore if she did it. He wanted to kill her. He raised the crowbar and hit her in the head. Lara went unconscious and fell on the cold ground. Right before he went to check on her breathing, someone knocked violently on the main door. Several voices could be heard outside, unclear to him. He froze, thinking that it might be the police. His instinct told him to get out as fast as he could. Quickly, he runs to the back of the manor and found the first window he saw in one of the rooms. Breaking it, he got out swiftly, leaving the manor behind in a hurry with a crowbar still in his hands.

### (★★★)

"Lara! Wake up! Lara!", said the worried voices beside her.

She opened her eyes and spotted Jonah and Abby next to her. They were trying to wake her up and stop her bleeding for an hour now. Luckily, the wound was small, and she did not lose that much blood. Jonah looked at her in horror. Abby was sitting beside him on the ground, hand across her mouth.

“Jonah…”, she said with a cracking voice.

“Holy shit, are you okay?”, he returned with a sad expression on his face. Abby was frozen from fear.

"We should call an ambulance... she looks really pale", said Abby while checking her pulse.

“No, guys, I’m fine. Where is he…”

“Who?” asked both of them.

“Konstantin…. he is alive…”

Jonah looked at Abby, and she returned the horrid look to him.

“He hit me…and I would be dead if you two did not come…”

"If we wouldn't have noticed the van in front of the manor, we would have never thought that something was off. No one is here but us, occasionally", said her old friend.

Lara smiled at his words and tried to get up but got dizzy from the hit. She felt a great pain in her scalp.

"No, don't try to force yourself…stay there for a bit longer."

“I’ll go change the water and the towel. This one is too bloody”, said his girlfriend as she got up and quickly left.

“Lara, how did he find you? How did you not notice him?”

“I don’t know, Jonah. I locked the door…he might have been following me and broke in somehow…”

"We broke your doorknob with a shovel from your garden…That son of the bitch! I should have killed him back in Siberia when I had the gun in my hands", shouted Jonah from the anger he felt.

This guy manipulated him into not killing him when he had the chance. This was one of his greatest failures. He felt guilty for what happened to Lara, and she could see it on his face.

"You couldn't have done it, Jonah…You are not a cold person…"

"I would If I knew that he would be alive after you defeat him. How did he even manage to survive?"

“I don’t know…I told you that I saw them all together yesterday…”

Jonah felt ashamed that he doubted her. His hand went across his face, and his other one took her hand. Abby stood behind them, watching the scene. She knew what the situation was but felt uneasy at the view regardless. She took one deep breath and joined them, cleaning Lara's wound on the head.

### (★★★)

"Where is that punk?" said Dominguez towards his companion, who was supposed to be his left hand, but instead of searching for Konstantin, he looked at resumes of all the females who were going to join them in the team.

“He ran away.”

"Can you be serious just once in your life, huh? Our guests will be here any minute now, and we are without one representative of our group…Go find him!" he said angrily to Rourke.

"He will show up, calm down, doc. That's just Konstantin. He went off to clear his head somewhere. I told you already that he is way too depressed."

"God, give me patience…" said the doctor as he turned around, walking nervously in small circles.

The door of the office opened as their companion walked and, they both looked at him questionably. When Dominguez saw a bloody crowbar in his hands, he freaked out.

"Where have you been?", he asked, praying that he did not cause them some trouble.

Konstantin only returned them a cold glare and threw the crowbar on the ground, making his way to wash off the blood from his palms. Rourke and the doctor looked at each other, not knowing how to react. Every situation was risky with their friend. He was a dangerous man, and they knew that.

"Did you killed something for dinner?" joked Rourke as Dominguez hit his arm hard to shut up.

After a longer pause, Konstantin spoke, back turned to his partners.

“I killed her.”

“Who?”, asked the doctor with a cranky voice, fear painted on his face.

“Croft.”

They did not expect this at all. Dominguez fell in his office chair from shock. He killed her. Just like that. And if he could send someone who almost killed them all with ease, he could not imagine how he and Rourke would end up if he knew that they killed Ana.

"Sir, they are here", said a recruit to the doctor.

None of the soldiers heard him at this moment. Long after Konstantin's words, they stayed sitting in one place, petrified.

**Visuals**

****

**Konstantin following Lara**

****

**Croft Manor**

****

**Lara enjoying her tea**

****

**K's bloody hands**


	6. 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐲 𝐚𝐢𝐫

“Are they coming yet?”

“I will call them again, ma’am.”

“You better be. We have been standing here for quite some time now. So unprofessional of them all.”

The young recruit wiped the sweat off his temple and let out a nervous sigh. He still did not know why Rocky threw him away to these people. The truth was he saw the situation that occurred in the nearby office, and he was nervous to bring up the same subject again to his superiors. With a fast pace, he reached the door and nervously knocked before speaking.

“Sir, they arrived…and waiting outside…”

"I know, give me a moment", interrupted the doctor, who was holding his head, laying back in his chair.

The other two commanders were also sitting, looking at each other the whole time. Konstantin could not figure out if Rourke got scared, impressed, or something else because his face changed expressions all the time. Then, he broke eye contact and spoke.

"Get up... we do not want them to wait for us any longer, do we?"

Rourke smiled at his words and put the resumes on the desk.

"I would never guess that you could be that tough. It's good that we have you on our team as our…ally."

The last word rolled slowly and louder on Rourke's tongue. This was one of many masks he wore over his face when the situation required so. Behind the mask and his empty words, he felt nauseous, as his end was near as well. But he felt happy that they had one less potential obstacle in their way. After a couple of minutes, they stood up, ready to meet their incoming partners.

"Let me talk cause you two could mess up even the smallest of things", said Dominguez.

"Come on, doctor, I feel like I need some female company after the horror story Konstantin told us."

Then, his arm travelled to Konstantin's back to pat him, and his companion saw it coming and smacked it off. Rourke laughed nervously while following the doctor behind.

"Calm down, buddy... we need to be polite in front of our guests."

Konstantin grabbed Rourke’s forearm and hissed in his face.

"I swear, you'll going to end up with more broken bones. The nose was just the beginning."

The level of stress he felt was high all day long. The mockery was not something he could swallow at that point. He let go of his arm violently, pushing his friend away. Rourke mechanically checked his band-aid on the nose before going in. Then, the doctor opened his arms to greet the standing and now thoroughly annoyed ladies. He sensed the tense atmosphere, and to appease them a little, shared the biggest grin he could.

"Welcome! Please, receive my sincerest apologies. We were trying to solve some unfinished business until now. Forgive us for the inconvenience of making you wait for so long. I'm Pedro."

Slowly approaching, he took each of four women's hands, kissing them. Two of them actually smiled at the gesture, forgetting about the leg pain they felt from standing in one place for too long. They were around his age, and he thought that they wanted to be polite. But the other two girls who were younger had a blank expression on their faces.

While Dominguez was trying to placate the leaders of their new allies, Rourke stood behind, observing their reactions and, more importantly to him, their appearance. From first sight, he liked them all. Even the women who stood in a formation behind them were, unusually, attractive. A croaky smile appeared on his face on the thought of how each of them might look like under the uniforms. _'If I could have only one of you by the end of the night'_ , he thought. The simple rule said superiors shouldn't mingle themselves with the minor soldiers in the army. It did not appear interesting to him anymore. Many younger recruits were occasionally looking at him, and he noticed that. It made him even more hyped, so he decided to introduce himself in front of everyone. With his hands behind his back, he stepped out and cleared his throat to begin.

"I am honoured that we have you here as part of our team. You can call me commander Rourke. Jason for the equals", he announced with a nod to the four representative women. Then he stepped even closer to the troop and put on one of his most charming smiles as he continued speaking. "I am sure we will be working really well together."

After listening to his small speech, some of the girls tried to suppress their laughs because it was pretty obvious that he was trying way too hard to impress them. His broken nose did not make it easier, as well. But many of them actually blushed at his presence regardless of his wacky pick-up lines. At the end of the day, he was an attractive man, and it was plainly obvious that he knew how to use that to his advantage.

Meanwhile, his brother in arms stood behind their backs and watched. In his most honest opinion, that was a plain display of a circus routine. This was too uncomfortable for him. The last time he spoke normally with a woman was when he and Ana planed their future after regaining the Divine source. His eyes were hovering from the troop to their leaders. _'What a waste of the time…'_.

It could be clearly noticed, from the start, that two of the older leaders were hitting on Dominguez, laughing at his bad jokes. Both had strong facial features, blue eyes, and blond hair tied in a classic low-bun in military-style. The third one was around Rourke's age, maybe a bit younger than him, and by the way, she acted, she was pretty unimpressed by everything. She did not say a thing from the beginning, just stood there. She was beautiful with her caramel hair and tanned skin. But her green eyes looked lifeless and tired. She was looking at Konstantin and Rourke from time to time, calculating them. Finally, he noticed the last one, which stood with her arms behind her back, seemingly paying close attention to the doctor's inspiring speech. Same as the previous one, she did not have any big emotions shown on her face. The only thing he could think when he laid his eyes on her was that she was too young to be here and do what she does. She looked like she was around her early twenties, but quite successful if he considered that she was already in such a high position.

He was staring at her for some time, not even realizing it until she returned him his look. Her big brown eyes looked confused, and her black bun was starting to get messy from the wind. She quickly turned her eyes away as she realized that he was in a higher position than her and that she should not look at his eyes for too long. Shivers travelled down her spine from his gaze, and she blushed. Those pale eyes gave her quivers, and she was slightly intimidated by them at the moment. Konstantin noticed this and smirked, barely visible, as he turned his sight back to Dominguez's welcoming parade.

"Oh, I completely forgot to introduce our third member. Konstantin, please", said the doctor gesturing to him to speak a few words.

"Welcome. Commander Asillo."

The short speech echoed through the facility. Once again, he caught the gaze of the young woman, just in time before she decided to stare at the floor.

"Thank you all for your welcomes…I think it's time to introduce my team as well, but some of you already know us personally", said one of the blonds smiling at Dominguez, who nodded politely.

"For the two younger gentlemen, I am commander Olga, and this is commander Nadia." The other blond woman bowed her head to them. "Please excuse us if we mess up in expressing ourselves... we are Russians. These two younger ladies are our heirs if I can say so. They will one day lead the troop and special operations. Tanya and Elena."

 _'So that girl is called Elena'_ , concluded the blond commander as his look met hers, once again. She smirked for a second to him, nervously, and turned to others again. He was genially confused. Her body language seemed so awkward to him. The strange feeling overflowed him, and he could not understand what it was because his eyes were frequently gazing towards her way. Meanwhile, Rourke was having the best time of his life. He was checking each girl in the room while asking them some basic questions.

"So…what is your specialty?", he asked one recruit while leaning forward to see her facial features closely. She quickly glanced at him and blushed and answered in a shuttering voice.

"I am fast r-runner…sir…and I can fight well in one on one f-fight…".

The rest of the crew chuckled or let out small annoying sounds. Rourke enjoyed every second of her answer.

"Maybe I could train you to get better in one on one fight…", he said while winking to the poor girl whose cheeks were red as a tomato.

Dominguez looked over the giggling crowd and realized that his friend was a hungry predator, once again, so he cut off the chit-chat he had with the other four ladies, speaking loudly.

"Okay, you should rest from the trip and tomorrow we can discuss the further plans. I will show you girls your common rooms with the beds and you four will have your own rooms with an office. It took me some time to find a place this big so we can function better. Please, follow me."

The doctor gestured to the long hallway, and they were quickly gone, leaving his two men and their recruit behind. Rourke stood for a couple of minutes in the place, staring at the empty hallway. Gesturing to the recruit to leave them, he spoke to his ally with a grin on his face.

"Do you get it that we are the happiest men on the planet at this moment? I never imagined this in my whole military life…it's like a dream come true…and that one, with the green eyes…she caught my eye. Don't try to do something with her cause she is already taken".

Konstantin looked over his friend and shook his head in disbelief, putting his hands in the pockets.

“You are delusional.”

“Hey…I need to mark my territory. Did you like any of them so far?”

“I don’t see them in that way. Nor I think that they would be of a big help…It will be most likely that we would be their protectors during the operation.”

“Nah…that’s not important. As long as we can take some of them in our beds.”

Konstantin's eyes widened, then he furrowed his brows on his companion's words. He hardly felt pain or any other emotion in his life, but even so, he felt disrespected by what Rourke said. Then he turned away and walked outside to light a cigarette, leaving Rourke to his daydreams.

"Yeah yeah, walk away…God…is this man asexual or what…" he mumbled, pissed off, as he went to his office.

### (★★★)

Lara spent most of that night with her friends in the manor. She felt unsafe, but she was also scared for Jonah and Abby if the Trinity would come back, once again. Her head was better, but the hit was so hard that her vision would occasionally get blurry, and she also felt light-headed. They sat in the living area for some time, thinking and discussing what they could do to prevent another attack. She could sense that something was wrong with Abby and Jonah from their behaviour towards each other the whole time they spent there. Sometimes, there would be a long, uncomfortable silence between them all.

“Guys, there is something off about the two of you today…I hope there was no beating”, she announced, mocking them a bit with a visibly tired voice.

Jonah smiled and lowered his gaze to the floor. He could never tell her that Abby wants him to keep his distance from her. The tension only rose in him.

"Everything is good... we are just scared for you, that's all. We can stay overnight if you'd like…"

His girlfriend looked at them but showed no emotions. The truth was that she was scared of what happened to Lara, but she kept silent almost all day long after the discussion with her boyfriend. Lara looked at her and took her hand by surprise. She looked taken aback but let the situation roll.

“You guys don’t need to stay overnight with me…I feel like Abby is tired and I don’t have any guest room completely redone for guests…I don’t want to be a burden to you…Thank you both for saving me…I am very grateful that you came today…”

"You sure?", asked Jonah, concerned.

"Yeah…we can discuss tomorrow more about defence…"

With those words, they got up, bid their farewells, and left her alone. That night, she could hardly sleep. Her enemy was haunting her in her dreams, leaving her restless and vivid throughout the night. The enraged storm went wild outside, reminding her of what she has been through in the past couple of years, reviving the memories of the loved ones who she has lost back then.

**Visuals**

****

**Olga and Nadia**

**Tanya**

**Elena**

****

**Lara with her wounded head**


	7. 𝐖𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞

It took them a couple of days to settle in the facility with their troops. They were once again on their feet, standing stronger than ever. The choice of the soldiers was pretty good in the doctor's mind. After the girls came and joined them, Rourke and Konstantin were searching for bigger support. They were, mostly, Trinity's former soldiers, which survived the mess that occurred in the latest few operations. Those people were mostly unemployed and unsatisfied with their lives, which in the beginning, was the main reason for them to step in. Same as their leaders, they wanted revenge, and Konstantin knew that with a few inspiring words, they would gladly accept to serve them again, and they did. He would repeat his speech over and over, day after day, visibly bored and annoyed. Throughout the speech, he managed to keep his mask on.

Everything went smoothly during his speech, apart from the strange feeling that bothered him daily. This feeling was something unexplainable to him. And it bothered him a lot. Every time he would talk, other troops would join in, as well, as the representation of what they formed so far, and every time she would step in, he would feel slightly nervous for no reason. Judging by his previous years, he never felt uncomfortable around people. He would occasionally be angry because of his former superiors, but nothing more than that.

That girl was messing somehow with his head. Elena. She once again entered the room with their troop, and his eyes instantly flew across her, leaving him angry because of the slightly increased heart rate. The one thing he did not realize was he would frown and start to speak even louder, with a more dangerous tone, every time they would enter. Then, when he would finish, he would turn around and angrily storm out the door behind him, going outside for the smoke. His companions also realized his strange behaviour that was pretty new for them as well.

"Is there something that bothers you, sweetheart?", asked Rourke, sitting next to his fellow who was still slightly frowning, furrowing his eyebrows.

Konstantin stayed quiet on his question, just ignoring him like he was not there.

"Aw, come on…you can tell me…remember, we are brothers", announced his ally, abruptly tapping Konstantin's back.

“Leave me alone. There is nothing wrong.”

"Oh, really? What are you so angry about, dude?", asked the darker commander, starring in his ally's hands that were lighting a new cigarette, but his friend decided to ignore him again.

A few moments passed by, and when he heard no answer, he took the cigarette from his friends' hand and threw it on the ground, smashing it with his foot. Konstantin looked more shocked than angry now. He got up quickly, and Rourke followed the same, just in case.

"I told you I was okay! Stop following me like a lost idiot!", yelled Konstantin at Rourke as he turned to walk away.

Rourke pressed his lips together, holding himself from yelling back, but unsuccessful.

“You really should stop acting like you are in your PMS stage!”

A couple of girls passed by him at this moment, giggling, and it was enough to cheer him up and run after them.

“Girls, wait!”

### (★★★)

"We have been having these sessions for quite some time now, miss Croft, and we were getting somewhere for sure. Why do you want to give up so suddenly? Is there something that happened?", asked Lara's psychologist, looking over his round glasses.

The real reason was beyond her wishes, but it was something that was not for everybody's ears. With a small sigh, she bowed her head, feeling disappointed in everything that happened. She was thankful that her hair covered her wound from the crowbar.

"I feel like I have not been better at all…And I have thought that it would be for the best if I quit the sessions…", mumbled Lara with a slow, dry voice, making sure that she was convincing enough. Her psychiatrist looked at her in disbelief regardless.

“I’m sorry…”

With those words, she got up, pulled some cash from her pocket, and put it on his table, leaving him puzzled.

As soon as she walked through the door, she covered her head with a hoodie and picked up the pace, making sure that she comes to the meeting she has. For the longest of time, she did not have any weapon. After Mexico, she decided to sell her guns due to the enormous paranoia she had. There were some times where Jonah and Abby would come to the manor, and she would jump scared, pointing the gun at them. Obviously, after those scenes, they made sure to announce themselves, even though before that wasn't needed. Lara considered Jonah as her own brother, and he could walk in freely. But, once again, she needed to protect herself, remembering how frightening that night with Konstantin was. She still felt his arms on the back of her head and his void voice ringing in her ears. He asked her about Ana, which meant he did not know that his 'friends' killed her. The ultimate idea was to tell him the truth, but she did not know how to do it.

There were a couple of possible scenarios that were bothering her mind. He could kill them all, and it would be the end of Trinity, forever, but then, they could kill him too, and she could have two more enemies after her neck. Or, knowing how psychotic Konstantin could be, he could kill everybody, including her and himself. She shivered on those thoughts. But she was not in the position to sit at the comfort of her home, waiting for him to return and kill her. Cycling was stressful and anxious after the incident and, she would occasionally glance across her shoulder to see if someone is following her.

After some time, she arrived at the destination, putting away her bike, out of sight. She noticed men dressed in black guarding the front door, so she approached carefully, trying to act calm, with a cool head.

“Hello…um…I came to get the gun we were talking about on the phone last night.”

"Go inside... he is waiting for you."

When she walked away, she noticed a big guy smoking a joint, with his eyes shut, and sitting on the big sofa in the corner of the room. She approached carefully, not knowing if he was aware of her coming in. The guy took another smoke and exhaling it from his mouth, slowly, making an orb.

“Lara…”, suddenly he stated, and she jumped from the surprise.

“Rocky…”, she returned, swallowing her saliva carefully.

“You came here for a gun, is that correct?”

“Yes.”

Rocky opened his eyes and looked at her, brooding.

"Why would a young, beautiful…innocent girl like you need a gun?" he asked with a cheeky smirk on his face. She blinked at his words, not knowing what to answer on this.

"I don't think you should know…it was not in our deal to tell you the reason…and I expect you to be professional and respect the privacy…"

Rocky laughed slowly and calmly at her cleverly composed answer.

"I was asking because I was worried that a girl like you could get into trouble, not like your private reasons interests me…"

"I won't. It is for the self-defence purpose only."

"I see…".

He paused for a moment, staring at her like he was still deciding if he should sell her the gun. Then he pulled it from a nearby box and handed it to her. She took the gun carefully, never breaking eye contact with him. Rocky smiled at the sight of the money she was handling him, wrapped in a small black cloth.

"At least you pay…those morons from before were not even able to give me a deposit…calling themselves soldiers…".

He said the last part of the sentence, almost mumbling, which caught her attention.

"What?", she asked quietly in awe.

Her gun dealer smiled and rose upon her, putting a couple of strings of her hair away from her face.

"Nothing important…This is so out of context and the theme of the meeting, but I wanted to ask If you are married."

Lara froze at his words and felt anxious once again. Is this idiot flirting with her just when he possibly mentioned that Trinity was there before her? She looked in disbelief and took one step behind.

"Uh… I need to go…", said the young woman as she strode away in a hurry.

The poor guy smiled and shot a look at one of his people who guarded next to him.

"She is a gorgeous devil... I tell you… I like women like her…".

His guard nodded at his words as he threw himself once again on the sofa, announcing briefly once again.

“She is going to be mine.”

### (★★★)

The dinner at the military base was something that Dominguez liked the most. The chatter, clutter clinging and the laugh were a few things he really enjoyed back in his day. Now that their base was fuller than ever and louder than ever, he felt like he has succeeded after all these years. He was chatting with their new came leaders, finding them really interesting. The two older ladies would laugh and smile at him, and it would boost his confidence. _'It is so easy to impress them'_ , he thought. Others were briefly exchanging the looks between themselves, listening to their superiors and the chatter from the recruit's tables. Rourke would occasionally smile at some lucky recruit girl who would blush and be teased by the people from her table.

“I don’t want to burst your bubble, but don’t you see that you look like an idiot flirting with our girls?”, asked Tanya, smiling and tilting her head to one side.

He smiled at her. His plan was working.

“I don’t think so. I enjoy the beauty of your women...obviously. But don’t worry, I am already yours”, said Rourke winking at her.

The girl rolled her eyes and stabbed the fork in her meat. Elena tried not to laugh at this now frequent Rourke's flirting. She found him very funny and oddly charming when it looked like he was trying too hard. On the other hand, Tanya saw him as a clear womanizer. During those couple of days, she rather noticed his companion. The blond commander, that sat next to him, made no comments or expressions on his behaviour, caught her eye. She tried to speak with him a couple of times, asking him some basic questions to start a conversation, but he would ignore it, send her a questionable look, or suppress the further chat with the shortest answers possible. Despite that, she found him oddly attractive. The cold personality really attracted her, and she knew that she should try to win him over. She was ranked lower than him and was unsure if he already had someone beside him.

Konstantin would catch her staring during their meals often. _'Come on, there is a lot of fish in the sea'_ , he thought while being uncomfortable with her stare, knowing that she liked him. What really confused him was when his eyes drifted across her friend who was sitting next to her. She was quiet, as well. Elena would rarely glare around during her meals, mostly focusing on eating. One thing that disgusted him was that he was drowned to her for some reason, in some strange way, and knowing that she was almost fifteen years younger than him. Furrowing his brows, he thought: _'No, don't even think to look again'_. She would notice his expression from time to time, and she knew that it had something to do with her. Did he not like her for some reason? Or she said something that she shouldn't have? Those questions bothered her as well, and she felt like she was sitting on the needles, to the point where she would hardly wait till the end to get up and go to the office. It looked like he hated her, and she did not know why it affected her in any way.

"So, how was your day, commander?", Tanya asked the blond man, who was sitting opposite her.

“Fine.”

"Woah, you are not really a loyal girlfriend after all…I just told you that I am yours…", said Rourke faking an offended voice.

"I am nobody to you, commander, I am sorry…", said the tanned girl with a sly smile on her face.

Rourke felt his cheeks burn at this point from embarrassment.

“Alright, fine…Then I guess Elena will be, right?”

Elena looked up from her food, surprised, and smiled, taking the joke further.

“Sure, why not…”

Just as she said this, Konstantin stood from the table, mumbling that he is off to bed. Three of them looked at each other as Rourke shook his hand in the air.

"Don't worry, he is moody a bit these days, he just left the dead bodies behind, and he gets nervous when he does not smoke... he will be fine…".

After his words, the doctor announced that the dinner was over, and they got up from their tables. Elena took advantage of this opportunity to go after Konstantin. She ran in a hurry through the door, catching him in the middle of the empty corridor.

"Sir…", she said, stopping him and catching some air from the running. "I wanted to apologize if I said something or did something wrong…".

Her words were shaky and quiet, but they could be well heard, echoing in the empty room. It was the first time they officially spoke. He looked at her eyes for a moment. Did she really have the nerve to come to him like that and talk? His stony face remained still as he crossed his arms.

"As a lower-ranked soldier, you should ask for permission to talk to me, not to run after me and stop me like that. Are you aware that I can punish you if I want to? I am not Rourke."

She did not expect his cold approach and was taken aback. Why, her friend, can ask him pointless shit, and she could not even apologize? She felt her cheeks getting warm and her eyes filling with tears, so she blinked them away, hoping that he did not notice. Gathering some strength that was left, she spoke quietly, gazing into nothingness.

“My apologies, sir, it will not happen again.”

"You are looking at me when I am speaking to you, and yes, you shouldn't repeat it. Off you go before I take the privilege from you to become a commander."

Elena looked at him one last time, holding back her tears. She rose the hand to her head to gesture the soldiers farewell and turned away. He looked at her back for some time, standing in one place. When he reached his office, he slammed the door, locking them, took off his boots, and threw himself on the bed. His hands covered his face. _'What is happening to me? Why the situation with Rourke and her even bothered me…'_ , he asked himself, feeling guilty about what happened. He put one hand on his chest, feeling his heart beating faster.

"Not this again…"

### (★★★)

Lara did not feel like going home. She spent all day in Jonah’s and Abby’s presence, and she managed to forget for a bit about reality.

"Be safe on the way back... we don't want this guy to kidnap you and marry you…", said Jonah as Lara elbowed him through the small laugh. It was more terrifying than funny, but she knew that he was joking.

"Don't worry, Jonah, I'll call when I arrive."

With one last hug with them, she jumped on her bike and went off. She felt much safer with the gun but still sceptical about the dark streets.

When she arrived at the manor, the biggest surprise yet was waiting for her. She would recognize this hair on the miles. A huge smile appeared on her face as she threw the bike on the ground and ran towards the door where the figure was standing.

“Sam!”, she screamed from excitement and roughly hugged her friend.

“Lara! They discharged me this morning…I hope I don’t bother you.”

"What are those words? You are welcomed every time. Oh, I am so happy to see you outside!"

"Yeah, well, I hoped this would be a nice surprise."

Both girls stayed there for a moment hugging each other like there is no tomorrow. Sam noticed her friend crying a bit from happiness and wiped her tears away.

"Don't cry, silly... I came actually to stay a couple of days until I find a new apartment if you don't mind, of course."

“That’s even better…come, let’s get inside.”

Long after that moment, they stayed awake, chatting and laughing about old times, before peacefully fell asleep next to each other.

**Visuals**

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**K giving speech to their new members**

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**Lara with psychiatrist**

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**Rocky's warehouse hideout**

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**Konstantin confronting Elena**

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**Sam and Lara**


	8. 𝐊𝐢𝐝𝐧𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠

Sam woke up before Lara and shivered from the cold morning breeze that was hitting her neck. The fireplace went off during the night as the winter was just around the corner, welcoming her in the worst way possible. Her best friend was still asleep, occasionally mumbling some strange words and rolling from side to side. Sam smiled at the sight. _'Thank goodness that we sleep separately_ '.

She stretched her arms and went to light the fire once again. The excitement she felt because she was at last free and far away from her hospital bed was huge. She has so many ideas of what she should do next. The first one was that she should make some breakfast for her friend and herself. Moving slowly from the creeping fire, she walked to the kitchen area to check out what ingredients she could find there. Unfortunately, the only things she found were a bunch of old toasts and, of course – canned tuna.

She shook her head and laughed to herself. She felt sorry for Lara and for the way she was living during the last couple of years. The happiness was not in the hospital food she ate just a day ago, but the tuna sandwich on an everyday basis would not make anyone happy either.

Lara sits straight on her butt, shaking like mad. _'It was only a dream'_ , she thought as she put her tired-looking face in her hands. _'Thank God it was only just a dream…'_.

"Good morning, sleepyhead", interrupted her friend behind her back, carrying two large mugs with coffee. She smiled at her and gave her one, sitting on the sofa across from her. "Did you sleep well? I think you have said to me in the sleep who was your teenage crush and where you hide your magic wand.”

“Oh God…”, sighed Lara with a sleepy laugh that escaped her mouth. “Sorry, I was talking in my sleep again without a doubt…I just hope you did not find out who was my crush…”, she continued, jokingly.

“I will take this secret to the grave with me…don’t worry.”

“You act as you know…", said Lara catching her friends' quirky gaze. "You...know?"

“Yup…”, said Sam with a mysterious look in her eyes. Lara widened her eyes in surprise when her friend continued. “It was pretty obvious from the beginning, I was always the third wheel, but I won’t tell him a thing. He is taken now…”

“It’s not like there is something between us at this stage in life…” added her sleepy friend, quickly sipping her hot beverage.

“Wait, do you really mean it?!”

“Did you just made me confess this to you as you did not know?!”

"No way…I knew it!"

"Sam…"

Both of the girls laughed at the situation. It was the truth.

She liked Jonah in her teenage days, and it looked like he liked her back as well, but they never discussed this subject further. The curse that was passing on in her family was definitely the stubbornness to archive the impossible by forgetting the outside world and everybody around. And Jonah saw that. He knew that there was no point in trying anything with Lara. Every time he would try to tell her back from the things she wanted to do, he would be ignored or gotten involved in her plans. All he wanted for her at this stage was a quiet, normal life. It was something beyond her will because it was running in her blood. The sense and love for adventure grew stronger and was beyond anything else for her, and it took so much from her life.

There she was, in the end, questioning her decisions, doubting that all of that was for nothing.

“Seriously, now, you should find someone by now…start the dating app, meet some new people, Lara. Your best years are passing by in chasing troubles."

“I don’t think I have a capacity for doing this at this point…I have not felt in love since…well, you know who."

“Don’t backstab yourself further and holding away yourself from those things. Let's be real: you could easily find someone on the past expeditions and bring him home.", teased Sam with a small chuckle.

“I would rather die than bring a Trinity solder in my house…what are you talking about…”, laughed her friend in disbelief.

She appreciated every moment spent with Sam because she was the one who generously made her laugh. Her friend threw a small pillow on Lara's head and put her mug down, crossing her arms and preparing to give her a serious speech. Lara opened her mouth in awe, letting a small sound of disbelief.

"Young lady, tonight we are opening the dating profiles together. We deserve to have some fun, after all. And now, get your lazy tuna ass up because we are going grocery shopping. Thank God you have an amazing cook like me at your house.”

Shortly after those inspiring words, they left the manor for food hunting.

### (★★★)

"So…we are gathered today to discuss the strategy of our first operation", announced Dominguez to his companions.

They all looked at him as he tossed the papers and maps all over the table in the main operating room. He scratched his head and furrowed his brows multiple times before bringing the attention once again to his friends. On both of his sides sit Konstantin and Rourke, and the other four ladies stuck together opposite of them, staring as well at the scribblings.

"You call this a handwriting? No doubt you are a doctor", said Rourke, almost drowning in one of his papers.

The doctor shot a nasty look at him and quickly snatched the paper from his hands.

“You only need to do what I say, Jason.”

"Sure thing…", he answered, pinching his half-healed nose.

“This one is going to be for you two”, said Dominguez pointing to his men. Both commanders looked at each other, imagining mildly killing one another already. “The operation- kidnap and flee is going to start in two hours.”

“Who are we abducting?”

“The council’s daughter. The plan is to break into her private property, which is actually here, in England. It's guarded by some of her father’s best men. We need to find out where this bastard hides. You two are skilled enough to defeat the security and to bring the girl on your own. We need to save as many men as possible for the main operation, so I put my whole fate in you.”

Konstantin chuckled and looked away in disbelief, catching the attention of others.

“Did you think twice before you decided, doctor? We may not arrive in the pair at the destination…”

“You think that you are funny, motherfucker?”, shouted Rourke getting up from his seat as his ally followed his example, shooting him a dangerous look before speaking.

“The only thing that is going to be funny is your beaten ass if you continue to act like this. You keep on forgetting that we are in the same position at this moment, you imbecile.”

After Konstantin’s words, the older ladies sighed in horror.

“Disgusting…”, added one of them with a strong Russian accent.

“ENOUGH!”, screamed Dominguez, parting them with his arms. His angry face said it all, making both of them take a seat once again, maintaining the loathing eye contact. "If you want us to succeed, you two need to stop already!", he screamed, slamming the desk at every word until everyone became quiet again. “We are wasting our precious time here discussing idiotic things! You two get ready. Take as much ammunition as possible with you and bring her alive here. This is the location.”

The house was on the other part of the city, and it suddenly reminded Konstantin of Lara. He wanted to go back again there to check out if she was dead for sure, because last time he flew away in a hurry, so he made a mental note to stop by.

“Consider it done.” Said Rourke getting up, grabbing the map roughly, and leaving the table.

Konstantin wanted to leave also just when he felt the doctors’ hand on his shoulder.

“Please…don’t kill each other and don’t get killed there. We will be on the line. Return safely."

Dominguez tapped him and left him to stand there. As the others got up to leave as well, he caught the nasty looks from Russian commanders. Elena quickly followed behind them, giving him one short look, which was full of unsaid words and fear from holding back from them.

"Good luck", said Tanya, smiling warmly, before leaving.

He stood there for a while, feeling a mixture of bad emotions as his eyes froze in one spot.

### (★★★)

“Did you find fresh vegetables for the salad?”, asked Sam while waiting for her friend and balancing the random food bags in her hands.

“Yes…it’s been a while since I went grocery shopping.”

“I could see that judging by your fridge and hundreds of tuna cans. Girl, how you survive on this?”

“I think that I got used to it…. I barely have any appetite in the last period of time.”

“Oh-oh…Did something happened that I don’t know?”

"No, all is good.”

“Liar…”, answered Sam walking next to her friend.

“Trust me…” Sam nodded in disbelief before someone caught her attention on the other side of the street.

It took her a couple of seconds to realize who was calling them and waving in the air.

"Jonah and Abby!", she said to Lara, dragging her to go as fast as possible to cross the street.

### (★★★)

The commanders drove in the military van, strictly watching the road. Rourke was laid back in his seat, tapping the steering wheel impatiently with his fingers and occasionally glancing at his partner, which said nothing at all. Konstantin was deep in his thoughts, slightly biting the flesh inside his lower lip and clenching his jaw from time to time. It did not last for too long. The radio started to blast with a song from Michel Jackson.

“Oh man, how I love this song!” shouted Rourke in excitement and started to slightly dance in his seat, banging his head in the rhythm. Konstantin looked at him in horror, thinking that his ally finally lost his mind.

"Annie, are you okay, are you okay Annie…", Rourke sang along the radio.

His friend sighed and turned the volume down, but his dancing ally smacked his hand and turned it up back just before his favourite part hit on.

“YOU’VE BEEN HIT BY A SMOOTH CRIMINAL! WOAH!”, he yelled and smacked the wheel, obviously hyped. Then, he looked at Konstantin, but he was already holding his forehead and breathing heavily.

"Come on, dude, have some fun…look, if we return with this girl and we remain in one piece, I’m taking you to the strip club tonight.” He smiled brightly at Konstantin’s reaction of disgust.

“That’s the one more reason to die today.”

"Oh man, don't do it. If you die, you won't be able to see my pretty face ever again!"

“Yeah, I hope that I won’t.”

The long pause occurred once again between them. The song reminded Rourke of how he ordered his men to shot his ally's sister back in Siberia. It was hard for him because he would always find her attractive in some way. When the higher positions ordered him and Dominguez to finish her, he could not accept it at first, but in the end, the doctor managed to get him done with it. That moment, when the sniper confirmed the kill, he felt disgusting but convinced himself that he is simply surviving in those cruel circumstances. All those thoughts made him sweaty. His mood went quickly from happy to sad. Finally, he spoke to her brother with a barely higher voice than the music from the radio was.

"Man, I never said how sorry I am because of Ana's death. I never imagined in a million years that this would happen." Konstantin shook his head and looked at the distance. "I mean…you know that I hate you, and you hate me for sure, but I feel like I need to tell you this. Just don't neglect your life because you lost her…It is hard, I know, but imagine what would like your life be a couple of months from now when we win this war."

The blond commander stayed quiet for a couple of minutes. He lit the cigarette and processed all that came out of Rourke’s mouth.

“I don’t see myself in the future anymore.”

"Do you want me to kill you right now so I don't need to waste my words anymore?", asked his friend, visibly disturbed and annoyed because of his depressing state.

When he got no answer again, he let an annoying sound as he breathed out and turned on the volume once again. _‘I am so fucked if he finds out…'_. Just at this moment when he thought that, he noticed a well-known face, with her friends, standing near the crosswalk, laughing and talking. _'She is alive!? No, no no…he should not see her’_. He stepped on the gas in the panic and got through the red light, causing many vehicles to beep him. His ally dropped his cigarette on the road from the sudden speeding that pushed him backward in his passenger seat.

“What are you doing, you idiot?!” he yelled.

“Unexpected adrenalin rush…hey, I thought you wanted to be dead a couple of minutes ago, so I was testing our luck…” Rourke answered simply with a fake smile on his face.

"Well, you should know that God does not take away stupid people like you!"

“Ouch, that hurts me…what could it be? Ah, yeah, my dick. Fuck off.”

“Just drive and shut up!”

**Visuals**

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**Lara and Jonah**

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**Meeting room**

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**R and K driving**


	9. 𝐈𝐭'𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐮𝐥𝐭

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave a like and comment if you like the story so far! ❤️

When they arrived, they found out that they will not be messing with an ordinary guard. Two very tall and ripped people were patrolling by the main gate, carrying their visibly polished sniper guns in their hands. Rourke lowered his binoculars and sighed.

"I have been out of practice for some time now, but I can tell that taking the goddamn girl will not be an easy job. There must be more of them inside. What do you suggest?"

"Let's take it slow, person by person. They are nothing compared to us", answered Konstantin while observing the surroundings and pushing Rourke more to his left, so they stay hidden in the vegetation.

"Yeah, you are right. I'll take down the left one, and you go for the right one. Ready?"

Taking the snipers out and applying the suppressors, they took a lying position and locked their targets.

“Ready…on three we open the fire…”

"Count fast."

"Three!" announced the blond commander and shot the target.

It took a couple of seconds for Rourke to shoot, but he managed on time before his target let any sound or signal to others.

“I did not mean that fast!”, he whispered, obviously pissed. Konstantin smiled and gestured him to get up.

“What was the last time you went out on the terrain?”

“Long time ago, and the last time I went, the naked woman jumped me.”

“So, you have a trauma?” asked his friend, pushing the amusing conversation further, but Rourke stayed quiet.

He obviously remembered all the horrific scenes, so he shivered a little and continued with an operation plan.

“Let’s split up. It would be easier that way. We need to find a side door or the back one. You take the right side of the backyard and stay on the radio under the ‘king one and two’. You are two.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Yeah, get over it. Let's move," said Rourke, pushing his ally.

"Moron", murmured Konstantin, realizing what a mess is to be actually on the field with Rourke.

He knew that his friend is self-absorbed, but the narcist in him grow stronger each time they met. That reminded him why he does not like to be teamed up with him. After they parted, the radio went on for him.

“King two, are you reading? Over.”

“We haven’t made ten steps separated yet!” hissed Konstantin to the radio, looking at his friend in the distance who was holding a thumb up for him and smiling.

“Just checking if the communication is working. Over.”

Then, he put a face cover on and moved swiftly around the corner, leaving his friend annoyed. Konstantin followed the same, so his eyes were the only visible thing. It was a curse for him to have blue eyes because, despite his camouflaged uniform, his eyes were sticking out, glistening in the night. But he could not deny that he was the only one in Trinity who would easily and precisely shoot the furthest targets with a sniper.

Rourke moved slowly, tracing the line of the big house walls with his back, making sure to stay invisible. The adrenalin was hitting him so he could hear his heartbeat in his head. Just when he was around the corner, he noticed two guards guarding the back door. The idiots played paper scissor rock with their hands and did not notice the commander. _'Those should be easy as well'_ , he thought.

“King two, we have two guards in the back. Signal me when you arrive so we can take them down. Over."

It did not take Konstantin too long to shot one of them, so Rourke followed, quickly, with trembly hands. Clearing their path, he rushed to meet his ally.

"You dick, quit playing! We could get in some deep shit if we don't cooperate properly!"

The blond commander obviously enjoyed to poke the bear and smiled coldly under his mask. Then, he put the finger on his mouth to passively tell him to shut up. Jason rolled his eyes and gestured to him to follow him. They were surprised to find the back door unlocked and pushed it open, stepping on each side, both.

“Clear”, whispered Rourke and pointed his finger to his ally to take the stairs to the second floor while he sweeps the first.

Konstantin nodded and cautiously sneaked up the stairs.

He moved slowly to each room, quickly checking them for the guards or the girl, but had no luck. The only thing that could be heard was a couple of faint sounds of shots on the radio. _'Damn, he's lucky.'_ When he reached the end of the hallway and sneaked around the corner, the guy who patrolled was there too and noticed him.

“Hey!”, he yelled and brought the weapon to Konstantin’s face, but before he actually managed to pull the trigger, he hit the wall from the bullet force that was hitting him. Konstantin turned around to find his friend in the distance, waving at him. He closed his eyes and brought his palms to his knees.

"King two, you should be more focused!", Rourke said to the radio while getting closer.

“You almost shot me, moron. The bullets were flying over my shoulder, just inches from my head", he answered quietly, maintaining furious eye contact with Jason.

“Or he almost shot you. Relax buddy! I am a pro. You owe me a pizza after this.”

“Whatever.”

After sweeping the second floor, they reached the last room in the house. Assuming that the girl is inside asleep, Rourke took the handle and gently tried to push the door but unsuccessful.

"Dang it."

Konstantin took out the picklock from his pocket and handed it to Rourke to try it out.

Shortly, they heard a small 'click' and opened the door slowly. That was definitely the girls’ room, judging by the mixed scents in the air. They noticed that this room was actually huge and entered the living area, which had multiple doors leading from it. Splitting up, they checked the other rooms. Rourke got out of the bathroom, carrying the pair of the woman's panties in his hand. Konstantin widened his eyes and received the panty hit on his head. Rourke cracked with a small giggle, covering his mouth with his palm. His ally approached him quickly and hit his shoulder, gesturing him with his thumb slicing the throat to cut out the play or otherwise he will be dead. He nodded and stood straight, tapping his friend on his back.

The sound of someone rolling in the bed caught their attention, so they continued to the actual bedroom. There she was. The girl was asleep, breathing heavily and letting a small snore notices from time to time. They both snuck up on each side of the bed, quietly observing her. She was in her twenties. The girl has a very sophisticated facial structure and half ajar lips that looked like she had too many fillers in them for her age. Jason took out the piece of cloth and gestured to his friend to take any action on his sign. He slowly put down three fingers, each one at a time, and on the last one, Konstantin grabbed the girl making her sit up. She opened her eyes in shock, and before she could scream or say something, Rourke tied the piece of the cloth on her head, covering her mouth. In the meantime, his ally tied her hands and pulled her from the bed forcefully. The poor young woman was shaking and started to cry when she realized what was happening. Her cheeks went red as she remembered that she was practically half-naked, sleeping in her very revealing silk nightie.

"We will take you with us for some questioning. Your father needs to pay for what he has done”, said Konstantin, pulling the girl up and throwing her over his shoulder to carry her.

She was petit and very light, so he found it more efficient and quicker than forcing her to move. Rourke’s eyes were glued to the girl’s body most of the time while moving behind them.

Shortly, they reached the van and disappeared, like nothing ever happened.

### (★★★)

“Cheers! To the freedom!” said Sam, raising the champagne glass with her friends. They clanged the glasses and drank.

“This is too strong”, said Abby making the unpleasant gestures with her face.

“Yeah, I know how to pick a good one", added Sam, smiling at her.

“So, how do you feel now?”, asked Jonah to Sam, squeezing Abby closer to him.

“I feel wonderful! I did not realize how much I missed the fresh air, the sun…the food…just the small things I lacked there. I feel so alive now, to the point where I felt overjoyed to go grocery shopping.”

All of them laughed and rose the glasses once again.

"To Sam's happiness!", said Lara, hugging her with another hand.

After some chatting, drinking, and eating, Jonah and Abby decided to leave.

"Glad we had you over, guys, but I am sad that you are leaving already."

“It is too late; we will see each other tomorrow if you two would like…”

"That sounds great, but can't promise anything. Maybe by tomorrow, we will find an amusement."

“Sam…” answered Lara, elbowing her.

"Oh, you did not mention anything…", replied Jonah amused.

“She is just joking…”

"No, I'm not! We decided that we need to find our soulmates because our time is running out."

“Or rather, she decided", said Lara, trying to pull herself out of the uncomfortable situation.

“Well, girls, good luck…I agree with Sam, you two should really find someone to warm your bedsheets…" replied Abby, smiling at them.

Jonah returned to her with a questionable look, realizing that this was not really proper.

"No, not in that way…", Sam started to explain, but Jonah cut her off, pulling Abby outside, smiling politely.

"It's too late and, we will be leaving you two now…".

“Okay, goodnight!”, said both girls, waving to the leaving pair. While getting inside, Sam turned to Lara grabbing her shoulders.

“I think she is jealous…”

“I don’t see the reason…” answered Lara, shaking her head.

"I see the reason. You two were talking, practically the whole night, leaving her out of the conversation…”

“But what could I do…she does not know what was happening to us in the past…”

"I know, just be aware of the wolf…and try to stay away from the trouble, if it's possible".

Lara blinked and sighed. The situation that occurred with Abby a moment ago was unpleasant. She thought that maybe Jonah's girlfriend thinks of her as an attention seeker or relationship breaker. This hurt her feelings. On the other hand, the feeling that she had when Jonah would kiss Abby or pull her closer to him would bother her. Maybe she was the jealous one, and she was unknowingly prioritizing chat with Jonah to have more of him for herself.

“Hello, Earth calls to Lara…”, interrupted Sam with her fingers snapping in front of Lara’s head.

“Sorry, I got lost in my thoughts…”

“I can see that. What’s wrong?”

Her friend just stood there, deciding whether or not to tell Sam about her insecurities, but decided to keep it for herself. She remembered that she left out the story of the accident with Konstantin the other day as well.

“There is actually something I need to tell you…I did not want to disturb you with the story, but I feel like I have a lot in my mind accumulating. I hope you won’t be mad at me…”

“Oh Lara, what have you done now?”, asked her friend, placing herself next to her on the sofa.

“Well…”

### (★★★)

“Ma’am, are you comfortable back there?”, asked Rourke checking out the girl on the rear-view mirror.

The girl was sitting there, gazing emotionless to his eyes in the same mirror.

"Ah, I forgot your mouth is tied up as well…Can I untie her?", he asked Konstantin which was focused on driving.

“No.”

“Why? I am too bored; you don’t speak at all…”

"I said, no. You had a lot of fun in the house already", answered his friend, slightly raising his voice.

“Are you still angry because of the panties?”

"That was a childish thing to do."

"You are, I see…well, I'll make up to you, I promise... did not know you would be pissed…It was funny to see your eyes almost drop on the floor…"

"That's enough! Can you shut up now?", said his ally, gripping the wheel as he tried to control his temper.

"Fine…sorry. I won't tell anyone…"

Rourke realized that they were discussing their hostage’s underwear, so he turned around to apologize to her.

"Sorry about that. He is just so much fun.”

Her face once again became red, and she turned to the dark-glass window to ignore them. Konstantin glanced on his ally, pressing his lips together forcefully. He needed to stay calm, or otherwise, he will scare and shame the young woman even more. When he turned his gaze on the road once again, he noticed someone flashing them with the headlights from behind.

“Oh, no!”, panicked Rourke, watching the police getting closer to them. “Drive faster! Dogs are chasing us!”

“Son of the bitch! You said that this shortcut is clear!” yelled his friend, obviously speeding.

“I assumed!”

"You assumed?! If we got busted, we are not getting out of the prison, ever!"

“WE WON'T! Step on the gas and try to lose them!”

“This is all your fault, blockhead!”

**Visuals:**

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**Girl's guards**

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**K and R**

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**Unlocking bedroom doors**

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**Council's daughter**

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**Police chasing K and R**


	10. 𝐆𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭𝐲 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬

Sam sat in Lara's presence and said nothing from the shock she felt. The story that occurred just before she came to the manor left her speechless and concerned. The fact was that the things she wished never to repeat were happening, and judging from Lara's words, were far from over.

“And? When were you going to tell me?”, said Sam with a trembling in her throat.

"I am so sorry, Sam…I did not want to scare you or make things even worse for you."

“Well, you did! And on top of that, you made me anxious…What are we supposed to do if that happens again?"

“I know that there isn’t much we could do, but I have a gun…”

“Don’t think that one gun could save us if they appear together…”

Lara gave a weak smile to Sam and looked at the floor, embarrassed. It was not the life she wanted to live either, and some actions were necessary to be taken. The plan was all she needed, but she did not know where they were hiding or if they were alone. A loud sigh escaped her mouth as she tried to calm the situation down.

"Don't worry about that too much…I checked all windows recently, and I found the ones he would break-in, so I managed to block them. We should be safe for now, but I guess I'll be returning to my flat as soon as possible…you could join me too…"

Her friend stayed quiet and shook her head.

“It will never stop, am I right?”

“It will, eventually.”

"Don't go after them. Please. Promise me...", said Sam grabbing her friends' hand.

Knowing that she should actually try to eliminate them as soon as possible, Lara decided to keep that thought for herself, gently nodding to Sam in affirmation.

“I promise. Let’s finish this topic and have some fun now…You mentioned the dating app earlier?”

“Yes, I almost forgot about this… Let me go grab my phone.”

### (★★★)

"Jason, Konstantin, do you hear me?", the doctor spoke to the radio, walking around the room.

He was trying to reach them for a couple of hours, and the thought of them being dead was not leaving his head. He felt dizzy from the intense migraine he was feeling, so he was squeezing his head tightly. _'It's not possible…They are too strong to die there, they faced far worst things…'_ , he thought, refusing to believe otherwise. The ladies sit there motionlessly, feeling the tension rise.

“We can send Tanya and Elena on the spot to find them if they don’t answer…”, said one of the older leaders, making the young women look at each other.

Dominguez turned around to face them, obviously offended by the lady’s words.

“They are my best men! I am sure they will respond soon!" he said, pointing at the radio that gave no sound.

The young recruit entered the room, saluting to others before speaking to the doctor.

“Sir, your weapon dealer is going to come in an hour. He wanted me to let you know…”, said the poor guy, looking lost and scared.

"Good, he was the only thing I was missing on top of this shit…", he said quietly, throwing himself in the nearby chair before continuing. "Why is he coming?"

“I don’t know sir, he just announced himself.”

“You may leave. Call me when he arrives.”

"Yes, sir."

He turned on his heel before quickly storming from the room.

### (★★★)

Rourke and Konstantin sit in the car in one of the darkest streets they could find. The car chase was pretty intense and uncertain, but they managed to escape at last. They sit in silence, leaning on their hands and waiting for some time to pass before they hit the road again. Rourke would occasionally look at the girl in the mirror, checking her state. She was trying to scream during their crazy ride and threw herself on the doors to try to open them with her body force. Dried tears were almost visible on her pale cheeks, and her distant gaze was tired from the stress she has recently gone through. He felt sorry for her but could not do much. He would also avoid speaking to his ally, who visibly looked like he would kill them all at this point. He could have sworn that Konstantin did not blink even once from the time they pulled up the vehicle. Feeling the sudden hunger rush, he spoke to his gloomy partner.

"I am heading out to find something to eat…you want something?", he asked Konstantin, who looked at him in disbelief.

“You have the audacity to speak after all you have caused?”

"Fine, I was just asking."

Rourke turned to the girl, smiling gently. Stretching his arms, he managed to reach her head and lowered the cloth that covered her mouth.

“You must be hungry…what do you want me to get you? I’ll understand if you are vegetarian.”

The girl shivered from his touch and swallowed hard before weakly answering.

“I want to go home.”

Jason’s smile disappeared from his face.

"I am sorry, this is not possible right now…We need some answers from you. I hope you understand. Also, I feel bad for kidnapping such a pretty lady like you, but what can you do…", he said catching the pinch of redness in girls’ cheeks and Konstantin’s look of disgust.

“Flirting with our hostage will not get you anywhere.”

He said to Rourke, rolling down the window and lighting a cigarette.

"Yeah, never mind.", answered Rourke, trying to roll up the cloth on her mouth.

"Please…I can't breathe properly with it", said the girl, referring to him to leave it down.

He contemplated for a couple of seconds and decided to grant her wish.

“Just stay quiet…”

She nodded as he got out of the car.

“Don’t get caught”, added his companion shaking off the ash on the street ground.

He watched Rourke disappear in the gloomy night as the rain started to fall once again. The temperature dropped drastically. The bad smell of the nearby trash cans started to spread through the wind. Finishing his cigarette as quickly as he could, he threw it in the pound and rolled the window up. He completely forgot about the girl in the back who was shivering from the cold. When he noticed, he opened the compartment under the front passenger seat and pulled out his jacket. It was big enough to cover most of her body. Although it smelled of smoke, he had no better option for her at that moment, so he turned around and stretched his arms to cover her. She maintained the look on his face for a while. The scar that was across his cheek made her quite uncomfortable as she thought of him as a person who got through so much in his life. And she was not wrong. He caught her gaze and left her confused for some time before she thanked him. She hoped that she made it look less visible that she was staring for some other reason. He gave her an annoyed look and turned around once again.

“Where did you get it?”, she asked him quietly.

“It’s none of your business.”

“Do you speak to your wife like that too?” He observed her before answering coldly.

“You are very brash despite your status and age."

The girl chuckled and blinked in disbelief.

“You kidnapped me in the middle of the night, played with my underwear, and you have the right to tell me that I am brash…wow.”

Konstantin clenched his jaw but flashed a short smile at her in the rear-view mirror, trying to play cool.

_‘Who she thinks she is? Brat.’_

"Yeah, keep on ignoring me, you bastard."

That was the point of his breakage. He had a very short temper and usually would not tolerate this type of behaviour. Many lives would be extinguished in this type of situation. Turning around, he grabbed her by the cloth around her neck and pulled her closer, making her say soft but painful 'ouch'.

“This is the last time you spoke like this to me if your life is valuable to you.”

Then, he pushed her back in her seat, making her frown and tremble from fear.

### (★★★)

“Rourke on.”

"At last! Where are you two by now, and why the hell is your radio switched off?!", asked Dominguez, visibly pissed.

Rourke chuckled and almost dropped the piece of the hot sandwich he had in his mouth. It was too funny for him how the doctor's accent changed when he was angry or excited.

"We were at the car chase. Everything is under control, relax, doc."

"What?! How is this, on Earth, under control? Where are you now? Let me send you the rescue team…"

"No need for that. We are fine. The girl is with us.", he said quietly, sitting in the furthest seat in the bakery, checking out the woman who worked there.

“Are you eating?” said the doctor, making the others who were with him crack with a small laugh.

"Yup, being a soldier is a pretty hard and exhausting thing, you know…"

The cashier girl smiled at him, catching the last sentence. He smiled back and continued.

"You know, when you have an extraordinary man like me, you should be open to any situation that could occur."

The girl rose her eyebrows to the skies, sensing that this was meant for her.

“Yeah, right…where is Konstantin?”

“He is in the car, polluting his lungs, as usual.”

“Okay…return as quickly as possible in the base. Rocky is coming to visit us.”

"Oh no, not him", he said, making an ugly grimace on his face.

"Yeah, I said this too. I'm off."

“Alrighty doc, see you soon.”

Rourke turned off the radio once again and attached it to his uniform. Noticing the girl secretly glancing at him, he decided to sit closer to start the conversation. Placing himself on the counter across, he smiled once again.

“I have never seen a soldier wearing this type of badge on the uniform…”, said the young girl, leaning over the counter that she was cleaning, revealing her cleavage even more.

He noticed and quickly blinked off his vision to her face.

“And I haven't seen such a beautiful lady in a while", he stated, biting his sandwich deeply.

She smiled and shook her head. He took out a piece of paper and pen from his pocket and wrote his phone number before handling her alongside the money.

“We should definitely see each other again.” She took the number and smiled widely. “And please, place two more sandwiches in the bag.”

“Sure…”

When he got out, he stiffened from the cold air that hit his face. Finally, he managed to sneak to the car, unnoticeably. He noticed his ally leaning back in his seat, staring at the roof. The girl had the mouth cover on once again. _'They got into a fight, for sure.'_ He motioned to Konstantin to unlock the door for him and sit quickly, giving him one of the sandwiches he brought.

“I am not hungry.”

"You will eat it! I did not pay for it to be thrown away!"

His friend looked at him, furrowing his brows but did not manage to say anything back because Rourke pushed it in his arms, quickly turning to their hostage.

"I brought one for you too…but I can't untie your arms. Let me get to the back to feed you…", he said, jumping from his seat and quickly getting on the back one.

Konstantin shook his head, sighing. Then, he set the food aside and started the van, observing the ridiculous scene that was happening behind his back.

### (★★★)

Lara and Sam spent the rest of the night scrolling through the dating sites and drinking the wine. They were on their second bottle, and the state of drunkenness started to get to them slowly. The girls would giggle at any man they came across, making fun of them.

"Oscar, 54…wow, he looks like he is a serious one…", said Sam through a laugh. Lara giggled and covered her face.

“He looks like he could be our dad…”

"Whops, I liked him already…"

“Sam! You don’t want unwanted interactions with him…”

“No…but he is kind of cute…”

"Oh, God…"

"What? I am telling the truth. Besides, I am worried about your wine cellar. It might get empty by the time we find some decent guys…"

"Or we could be dead by the time it gets empty…", announced Lara, rolling in the blanket on the floor.

"Oh my God…Lara, you need to see this!"

She got closer to her friend, showing her the profile of the guy. Lara widened her eyes, not believing in what she just saw. It was Dominguez in the photo, staring at them.

"He is one of them…" said Lara, making Sam look at her in shock.

“Pedro Dominguez…51…he is in Trinity?”

“Yes…and…oh God, he looks so horrible in this photo."

Sam chuckled and scrolled more of his pictures.

"Look at him sitting on the beach shirtless! What a stud…", she said, making Lara laugh as well.

“He looks as bad in person, to be honest…"

"Shut up! He looks nice for his age…"

“Sam…”, said Lara, elbowing her friend who was rolling from the laughter on the floor.

"I will text him, so that way we can have some fun…don't worry, I will not meet him, ever…"

“Are you insane?”

“I will change the picture and bio in the case he knew who I was…don’t be such a party breaker, it will be fun! And with a bit of luck, he will text me back.”

“This could be dangerous…”

"No, I disagree. He is not going to know that we are texting him. Let me see his bio…He is divorced, an adventure lover, and looks for a lady who will keep him company. Wait, does he refer to the sugar baby?”

Both of them stayed quiet for a while and then broke into a loud laugh. Lara was disgusted by him, knowing what he has done in his own village and outside of it, but still found the situation entertaining.

“This could be good, and we could make some money…”

“Yeah, just text him to run you the check…”

"No, I am serious! I am the perfect sugar baby for him. Look at me."

Sam stood up and spun around awkwardly, almost falling from the amount of alcohol she has drunk. Lara giggled and clapped at the presentation.

“Sorry for doubting in you…”

“You are forgiven…Now, let’s edit my profile to be as attractive as possible.”

**Visuals:**

****

**K and R waiting in the dark street**

****

**Kidnapped girl in the backseat**

****

**Bakery worker**

****

**Pedro's beach picture**


	11. 𝐉𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐲 𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐞𝐬

“Ah, my dear friend…welcome!”

“Don’t be so sure that we’re friends, doctor…yet.”

“Yeah, well, I consider you as one. You helped us in the time when we needed it.”

“I surely did not forget about the amount of money you still owe me", smiled Rocky, squishing the doctor's hand.

Dominguez smiled nervously at his words, observing his gold grin and slowly cursing in his head. This man was pretty tough to deal with. Even though they were on the friendly side with him, it looked like he wanted much more than money.

“Let’s sit in my office…”

“Where are those two beauties?”

“They are on their way back here and will join us soon…”

“If I did not know you better, I would think that you are deceiving me…”, added his gun dealer with a dry smoker voice, following him into the office.

Many soldiers who were nearby observed him with either questionable or admirable looks. The female ones would get excited over him. Rocky was not in any way an unpleasantly looking guy. His strong and sharp appearance made many girls tremble upon him, so he returned them with a couple of winks before reaching the room and placing himself into the armchair.

“Can I offer you something to drink while we wait for them? We have amazing Russian vodka from our newest members…”

“Sounds…delicious.”

### (★★★)

Council's daughter could not keep her focus on eating from the hot man next to her. She would slowly bite her food to buy more time. It was the first time that any man treated her this well, even though he kidnaped her. Her previous love life was not something she could be proud of, and she certainly was not proud that she was falling for someone who hunts her father. On the other hand, she found Konstantin too scary, so she kept quiet the whole ride. He would glance at them from time to time, only to furrow the brows. In fact, Konstantin hated when private things mix with the duties, so he was sick of Rourke's sidekicks. It was unclear if he was feeding her as slowly as he could or she was lacking. Rourke was aware of the girls' plan, so he kept playing along, warmly looking in her eyes and slightly smirking. Finally, they pulled up in front of their base.

“Alright, I hope you would give us some answers now that you are not hungry anymore", said Rourke, taking the girl out of the car.

It was pretty late, and the rain was pouring on them, so he snuggled her in Konstantin's' jacket and took her to carry her in her arms. The poor girl only had her socks on, which were soaking wet now.

“Is this clown here?”, asked Konstantin, observing Rocky’s black van.

"Yup, I forgot to tell you that he would come."

“Now? In the middle of the night?”

"Well, yes, if you were an illegal weapon dealer, would you come at the normal time?"

“What does he want?”

"I don't know, but I think that you didn't return the van when you were hunting Croft…it was his men's van."

Konstantin almost forgot about the van and the plan to check on Lara, so he closed his eyes in disappointment in himself and rose his head to the sky, letting the rain hit his face. How could he be that stupid? Rourke shook his head, still watching his friend from the main entrance.

“Come on, you will catch a cold”, added Rourke, just when Tanya and Elena came around the corner.

"Oh, you are back! You two gave us a heart attack!", said Tanya, getting closer and kissing Rourke on his cheek.

He did not expect this coming, so he turned red and almost dropped the girl on the ground, who played cool but was burning inside. She speculated that maybe Tanya was his girlfriend. Elena was observing them in the distance, smiling at the scene. When Konstantin finally came inside, she blushed and felt her heart flutter. She was happy that they were alive in the end. When their eyes met, she nodded politely, but all he did was looking away from her. That little gesture stubbed her in the heart, so she felt sadness coming back again.

“Err…nice to see you too”, said Rourke, putting the girl down.

She shivered, but it did not stop Konstantin from getting his jacked back. He approached and slowly started to unwrap her while she stood there, baffled.

"I thought you would be a better gentleman and leave me your jacket. You know that I will freeze in my nightgown."

Both commanders looked at her in disbelief.

 _'Acting like a princess now, huh?'_ , thought Konstantin, but decided to leave the jacket on the girl.

She smiled and thanked him, blinking with her long lash extensions. This was enough for Elena to boil with anger. From the start, he ignored her and made her feel worthless, and now he had the balls to play the saviour for the unknown girl, which practically was naked under his jacket. Her eyes started to fill with tears as she turned around and quickly walked away to avoid the pressure she was feeling. That caught the attention of others.

“What’s wrong with her?”, asked Rourke visibly concerned.

"I don't know, but it looked like she wanted to cry…", answered Tanya, gazing in the direction where her friend left.

“You don’t say! Konstantin, what have you done to her?”

Rourke smiled mockingly to his ally that was angry and confused as Hell.

“Sir, welcome back. Sir Dominguez and Rocky are expecting you two in his office”, announced one of the recruits to the commanders.

"Take the girl to the holding cell, don't take off the jacket from her and tie her up properly."

“Yes, sir.”

### (★★★)

"Come on, for how long will you keep on ignoring me?"

Jonah stayed silent on his girlfriend's pleading and looked deeper into the book he was reading. Abby tried communicating with him since they left the manor but unsuccessful. He kept on refusing to talk or even to look at her. All those things that she said to Lara before leaving were hurtful to him as well. He felt like there is a lack of trust between them, and similar things were repeating from time to time when they would be around Lara, but he would ignore them. Jonah lost his will to fight against something that was not real to him.

"Look…I am really sorry about what I've said earlier to Lara. It just slipped from my mouth, and I did not think twice before letting it out. Please, stop ignoring me…your silence hurts me deeply…", she said while getting closer to him on the couch.

Jonah suddenly snapped at her, forcefully closing the book.

“Do you really think that one ‘I’m sorry’ will fix the things? I was so embarrassed just by standing there while your words 'slipped from your mouth'! How am I supposed to look at both of them in the eyes now?"

“I will make sure to apologize…It was not your fault…”

“But I am with you, and It makes me equally guilty…What am I even talking about? This is ridiculous…”

After some time of silence, he stood up to leave, but Abby grabbed his sleeve, stopping him.

“Where are you going?”

“To catch some fresh air.”

"Now? It is too late...please stay…"

"Don't tell me what to do!", argued Jonah, pulling back his arm and releasing himself from the grip.

He quickly put his shoes on and stormed off, leaving Abby behind.

### (★★★)

The commanders sit in the circle, entertaining the guest. It looked like Rocky came to have fun. He drank way too much vodka and laughed slowly at every sentence, trying to find something funny in it. It was the first time in a while for them to drink alcohol, so it hit them after the first shot. Konstantin was way too tired to interact more, so he kept everything short. He felt uneasy about the thing that happened with Elena earlier, so he was deep in his own thoughts, occasionally adding something to the conversation. His ally was the main one with Rocky, laughing like a crazy bastard at everything. On another side, Dominguez lost his interest and scrolled through the protentional girls he would like to meet, just when a new message popped up.

M: 'Hey daddy, nice pictures you have there…'.

He blushed and unconsciously looked from the phone to his friends, but no one paid attention to him. When he opened the profile, he saw a beautiful blond woman with a captivating smile. Through her other pictures, he noticed that she was attractive and her body was well-shaped, so he felt excited already. _'Maria…who are you?'_ he thought, staring at the photos, which started to look more and more familiar. It felt like he already saw her but could not remember where, so he dismissed this idea and decided to text her back.

D: ‘Hello gorgeous, do I know you?’

M: 'I don't think so. I've never seen such a sexy man in my life…'

The doctor smirked and blushed even more, trying to stay as calm as possible so no one would suspect anything.

D: 'Oh, really? I feel like I've seen you before.'

M: ‘That is just your imagination, darling…😉’

D: ‘Where are you from, Maria?’

M: ‘From the same city as you, but the real question is, how far we are from one another?’

D: ‘Is this really important if two are meant for each other?’

M: 'Oh, do you think that we are meant for each other?'

D: ‘I don’t know, but I liked how you called me in the beginning…’

There was a pause for a few minutes, and it made him even more nervous. The butterflies were raging in his stomach, and he felt the tension rise upon every other second.

“Doctor, are you okay? You look red…", asked Rourke, snapping him back into reality.

"I am good...it is just too hot here…I'll be back…"

Getting up, he left the office and went outside for some fresh air.

M: ‘I would like to call you daddy in the more intimate way too, you know…’

D: 'You have a dirty mind…I would love to hear more of this kinky plan later when I hit the pillow...'

M: 'Of course, let me know when you will be available so I can change to something more appropriate for this talk...'

That night, Dominguez left behind his allies with Rocky, assuming that they are already asleep and dead from the alcohol. He went to his bed early to have some virtual fun with Maria and to dream of her.

On the other side of London, one particular manor was filled with loud laughs from the two young girls who had too much fun pranking their poor victim.

**Visuals:**

****

**Elena walking away from K**

****

**R chatting with Rocky**

****

**Sam's catfish photo on dating app**

****

**D texting 'Maria'**


	12. 𝐁𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚ç𝐚𝐝𝐞

The next morning, the doctor woke up pretty late, with a strong headache. His messy, greying hair fell over his face as he tried to come to his senses. Last night left him drained of energy because he stayed awake longer than he wanted.

 _'Not young anymore, for sure…'_ , he thought, bringing his cold hands on his face.

He remembered some details from the steamy conversation with his new virtual match. That brought a small smile to his face. The best part was that she wanted to meet him as soon as possible, so that made him slightly nervous. After his divorce from the local girl from his village, he didn't have any woman in his life. Paititi laws required him to get married at a certain age, and he picked one of the most beautiful girls back then. She loved him unconditionally and was always trying to please his wishes. She even wanted to have children with him, but she was too shallow for his taste. He could not get into a deeper conversation with her, no matter what he tried. Soon enough, he gave up on their marriage, leaving the young women depressed to commit suicide in front of everyone. His heart broke because of this. He truly cared about her, even though they were not on the same level of education. Usually, he would stare at her beautiful face for hours when they were home together, but it did not fill his heart. All those memories came to his mind, leaving him empty.

“Doctor, our guest is leaving…”, announced Rourke behind the locked doors.

He forgot about Rocky, so he jumped from the bed and dressed up as quickly as possible, swearing in the process.

“I’m coming! Don’t let him leave before we see each other!”

The commanders were already outside with their guests, slightly hidden from the outside view. All of them had terrible sourness from sleeping in the armchairs last night. Rourke constantly yawned, wishing to go back to bed, while his ally stayed present, answering Rocky’s questions.

“So, you say, you’ve spent your whole life in ‘Trinity’? This is admirable…”

“It’s not all the flowers and roses”, added Konstantin, remembering his poor childhood.

He could not say much about it because he didn’t have any nice or happy moments during that period. The sect would constantly prepare them for joining them in the future, so their earlier days were filled with studying, mastering the martial arts, and learning how to shoot. Ana was never good at martial arts or shooting, but she did not lack because of her brilliant knowledge. He smiled at the memory that popped into his mind. It was when he taught her how to defend herself. Ana was too scared that she would maybe injure him in the way and never fully committed to the fights. That was the moment when he felt the strong need to protect her every time and everywhere and swore to her by his life.

"Ah, sorry for the delay. I was not feeling very well last night, so I went to sleep early", interrupted Dominguez, cheerfully patting Rocky on the back.

“You've missed all fun."

“I bet…”

Rocky smirked and leaned closer to them, speaking barely above the whisper.

“I want my van back, boys.”

“Don’t worry, he will return it”, answered Rourke before thinking, so he added quiet ‘fuck’ in the end.

“Who is he?", asked Rocky to the poor lad.

Trying to save the situation with the first thing that came to his mind, the oldest commander smiled and put his poker face on.

“Our recruit…he is already kicked out, and we are searching for your vehicle.”

“I will be waiting…now, I’ll leave you three.”

After those words, he left with his men nonchalantly.

"Don't speak ever again in your life."

"Come on, doc... I didn't mean it…”

“Your tongue will cost us someone’s life…Konstantin, make sure to find this goddamn van!”, screamed the doctor to his fellow.

“I will help him…”

“No, Jason, I need your skills now. You helped enough just a few minutes ago. Go back to our prisoner and find out everything about the High council. Where is he, how many people are protecting him, and please…don't fall for the girl's charm. This is the situation where you should leave out your feelings."

Rourke nodded, clearly unsatisfied, and headed to investigate the girl. His ally stood there in silence, thinking about how he could do his part.

The doctor brought his hand on his shoulder and proceeded with the plan.

“Take one of the girls with you cause the situation could be unpredictable."

“No, I can do this on my own.”

“I did not say that you couldn’t. Bring someone with you just in case. That’s an order.”

### (★★★)

“I can’t believe the amount of wine we swallowed last night…look at all those empty bottles...”

“Yeah, that is the physical representation of my nausea", said Lara slowly to Sam which was cleaning the mess. The strong smell of alcohol lingered through the room, leaving them both feeling dizzy.

“What happened to the guy last night? I disconnected myself after some time…”

“I told him that I want to meet him.”

“And he said yes?”

“Of course, the poor guy did not realize that he’s being catfished…", said Sam through a laugh.

Lara shook her head, still believing that this could get them in trouble.

“We should stop soon…he is not that harmless.”

"I know, just a little bit longer…Let me have some fun with him. While it lasts, of course."

“God help us…”

Someone knocked on the door slowly. Sam dropped the bottle on the ground from surprise, shattering it. The broken pieces splashed over the room, while one particular cut Lara's arm.

"Oh my God, I am so sorry, Lara…let me see..."

"Don't worry, it is just a small cut…Could you check on the door? There is a gun under the sofa pillow, take it…"

Sam furrowed her brows and clenched her fists from the tension. Grabbing the gun, she headed to the main door slowly.

Looking back a couple of times at her friend who was trying to squeeze the area with the cut, she felt guilty and scared of what could be behind the doors.

“Who is this?”

"It's me, Abby…open the door, please, it's freezing."

She sighed in relief and lowered the gun from the door.

Slowly opening the door, she let Abby in. Their friend was already huffing in her hands, trying to warm them.

“Sorry, you can never be too careful…”

“I see…were you about to shoot me?”, joked Abby when she saw the gun.

Sam laughed and locked the door once again, leading her to the living room.

“What happened to your arm?!”, panicked their guest as she got closer to observe the wound.

"It's just a small cut from the bottle... I will survive. What brings you here? Why are you coming alone?", asked Lara, concerned.

“I need to talk to you two, especially with you, Lara…”

### (★★★)

The prison cell was pretty cold for the girls liking. She got used to the luxurious life in her warm house and frequent vacations to tropical places when it gets colder. In fact, on this particular day, she would be lounging on the beach in her swimwear, drinking coconut milk, and face timing her friends. Her mood was on the edge while she waited for someone to come over and finish with this torture already. Just when she wanted to scream for the guards again, Rourke entered the room. He quickly closed the door as guards locked them behind him. Then, he sat across from the girl, arms crossed.

“What’s your name again?”

“You never asked me…”

“My apologies then. May I know your name?”

"Well, I thought that you already have a girlfriend, so I don't see why is this information valuable to you if you are after my father", answered the girl with a small, satisfied smile on her plump lips.

She looked drained, but Rourke looked like he survived the war of his life. His eyes had big and dark circles around them, and his hair was looking like a hundred cows were licking him the whole night. On the whole image, he smelled of vodka. She noticed the smell and made a disgusted face.

“Are you drunk?”

"You are not in a position to question me…"

"Oh, really? Then why did you feed me last night?"

The commander sighed on this and closed his eyes. He did not show any emotion since he came into the room, and it was killing him. The fact was that he needed to act like somebody else, and it was not his strength, but he kept to play along.

“Because you would cry later for the food. Don’t think that there is anything between us.”

“See, you answered the question…”

 _‘She is sly…’_ thought Rourke after some time of observing her. _‘Sly and beautiful’_.

"Good, now you answer my questions and don't test my patience further. I am not in the mood today. What is your name?"

There was a short silence between them, and finally, she answered.

“It’s Tina…”

“There we go, see, it was not that hard. Now, Tina, tell me. Where is your father hiding?”

“What made you think that I will tell you this?”

"You are starting again!", yelled Jason, leaning forward.

He stared into her eyes for a while, who looked like they could kill him at any moment.

"Answer the question."

“I have nothing to say to you.”

That made him lose his mind, so he got up and grabbed her cheeks with his hand forcefully.

“Don’t play with me anymore…”

Tina widened her eyes and furrowed her brows, taken aback. There was another silence. _'I hate him so much'_ , she thought while the rough leather on his glove imprinted deeper into her skin.

 _'I hate her'_ , he thought while feeling powerless. If the council had a son, it would be much easier. Her beauty and stubbornness tortured him to the core. Slowly letting go of her face, he sat down again, grabbing his pulsating forehead.

"The girl that kissed your cheek...is she your girlfriend?", she asked suddenly.

Rourke rose his head abruptly in disbelief. _'Oh, you want to play?'_

“She is my wife.”

“Liar.”

“What?”

"Married couples are forbidden to work in the same circle. My father told me about this."

“This is not Trinity anymore, so nothing is impossible.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Why do you keep on asking me this? Are you maybe having a crush on me or something?”

She blushed but kept a calm face with an ironic smile.

“I would never have a crush on someone bad looking like you…you don’t even have a proper manner. Don’t be so full of yourself.”

He was done with her. The blood in his body was boiling, so he got up again and took off from her Konstantin's jacket that was hanging on her shoulders. Making his way to the exit, he stopped in the mid-walk and looked over his shoulder.

“You are just digging your own grave. Make sure to cooperate next time. Until then, you will freeze.”

Leaving the cell, he heard unpleasantly loud cursing and screams from the girl. Shaking his head to the guards not to interact with her, he walked away with a bad taste in his mouth, feeling satisfied but guilty because of what he has done.

### (★★★)

"I have other things to do. Sorry, sir. Our commanders are strict about responsibilities, and I need to finish writing this report. Why don’t you ask Elena to come with you instead?”, asked Tanya while scribbling on the papers something in Russian.

Konstantin tapped with his foot nervously. Why does it need to be her? He wanted to avoid her as much as possible, not knowing how to put up with the situation between them, but he had no other choice. The older ladies refused as well, redirecting him to the younger ones, so this whole thing made him nervous.

Soon he left Tanya's office and headed to find Elena. On the way, he met Rourke, who was nervous as well, judging by his face. When he approached, he threw Konstantin’s jacket back to him and smiled weakly, mumbling that the girl will not be easy for questioning, and left. Konstantin never saw him so out of balance. His usual mood was not present today, so he thought about that on the way to the girls' office, but found nobody inside when he arrived. He stood there in the doorway for a while, confused.

“She must be in one of the training rooms, sir”, interrupted one of their recruits behind him.

Closing the door, he gave her the jacket to leave it in the washer room and dismissed her. The intense smell of the female perfume on the jacket made him think twice before showing in front of Elena.

Finally, after some time of searching, he found her in the shooting room. She was practicing her shooting, locking her eyes with the targets in the distance. Standing behind her, he observed her skills for some time. They were brilliant, and she never missed one target. Elena did not notice him, so she kept on furiously firing from the weapons, switching them from time to time.

"Very impressive", said the cold voice near her earmuffs, making her miss the target and turn around.

She took them off quickly and made a surprised face.

"Sir…", she greeted, clearing her throat.

Konstantin stood there for some time with his arms crossed in the back. He did not know how to start the conversation with her because he noticed how uncomfortable she was. Observing the floor, the string of her dark hair fell across her face. His hand slowly approached and tucked it behind her ear. Their eyes met, and Elena's loud heartbeats made small noises in the close distance that separated them. He surprised himself, as well, because the act that he just did came out of nowhere. Usually, he would not do such a random thing. Quickly he put on his well-known blank facial expression and spoke once again.

“You are required to come with me tonight. We need to find and return a van."

“A-a what?”, she asked, still confused from what just happened, digging her nails in her sniper.

"Are you free to help me?"

“Y-yes…”

"Good. We will meet outside of the building around eight. Don't be late, and bring a weapon with you."

She nodded, looking like a lost puppy.

After he left, her mind played with her feelings for the longest time, not allowing her to shoot properly any of the targets anymore.

**Visuals:**

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**D's ex wife**

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**Lara's wine**

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**Prisoner girl in the holding cell**

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**R questioning Tina**

****

**Elena in a training room**


	13. 𝐀 𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐞𝐥 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝

The night was getting closer and, the base was getting quieter by every new minute. Usually, there could be heard a couple of cheerful chit chats from the recruits outside. There was nothing except the billowing wind and pouring rain. The winter was just around the corner and could be felt in the air.

Elena stood outside, inhaling the coldness as she tried to collect herself. Her whole body was trembling, but she didn't mind the cold. She grew up in harsh conditions, and it was not unknown to her.

As a child, she was excited about Christmas and the first snow. Alongside her grandparents, she would go sledding on the highest hills she could find in Russia. Building the snowman was also something that she liked too much, especially with the local kids from her neighbourhood. All of that was starting to fade away as she was getting older. The tough life she was living left many holes in her heart, which grow bigger with every new year of her life. Once she lost her grandparents, who took care of her, she was forced to work. Being a child of the former soldiers, she did not know any better than to apply for one. Soon as she finished her training and got the job, things have changed to her advantage. She made lots of new friends who became her new family, and she never regrets the decision to be in the army. Tanya was the first who actually approached and spoke to her, and ever since, they never parted. Two completely different people, but understanding each other. While Elena was shy, insecure, and chubby, Tanya was easily one of the most beautiful girls there, getting a lot of attention from the boys everywhere she would go. Elena remembered when her friend tried to set her up with her friend and how awful it went. It was unbelievable how awkward she was around guys. And now, there is one more guy in the line, playing with her emotions. She sighed as she remembered how he went off on her and touched her hair after, like nothing ever happened. There was a mix of confusion, stress, and anxiety going in her mind.

 _'_ _What is his problem…? We never properly spoke…'_

A little further stood Konstantin which was tightening his tactical gloves and observing his ally for that night. She did not notice him, which meant that she was deep in her thoughts already.

 _'What have I got myself into…'_ , he thought as he realized that he cut off most of the circulation in his hands from the pressure. Slowly, he loosened his gloves and walked towards Elena.

When he got close enough, she noticed him and nodded awkwardly.

"Do you know how to drive?", Konstantin asked suddenly.

"Yes, sir."

"Good. I'll need you to drive back the van we are going for."

"Yes, sir…", she answered in the same tone as before. He could tell that she was scared.

"Cut off the formalities, for now, no need to be stiff. We must act together, so no need for unnecessary tension."

This made her look surprised at him because it was the first time he spoke to her calmly and non-authoritative.

"Also…", he continued, "It was wrong…what I did earlier. I am sorry for touching your hair, it meant nothing, so I just needed to make it clear."

Her heart sank in her stomach as she listened to those words. She wanted to tell him so much at that moment, but it was not possible because he was her superior, and she tried her best to keep her mouth shut. His actions messed with her brain in the worst possible way, and she hated it.

"Yes…sir."

Konstantin also knew about how much he screwed with this gesture that came out of the blue, and he could tell that she was not happy about his last statement, so he silently led her to their vehicle and gestured her to come in.

They sat silently, making sure to avoid any eye contact.

### (★★★)

"Sir, the prisoner... she is refusing to eat…she spat the food on the guards…", announced one of Rourke's recruits to him.

Sitting still in his armchair, he tapped with his pen on the desk, nervously, and told him to make sure that she eats and to leave the office.

'Jason, where are you?', cracked the radio on his desk.

"In my ass, where could I be…"

'Slow down, wolf…are you in the office?'

"Yes…"

'Okay, I was searching for you, and I am coming to you now', said the doctor, turning off his radio.

The commander hit the desk with his leg nervously and held his pulsating head. The migraine was getting worse, and he could not come to the idea about what he could do to make Tina speak the truth. If there was one thing he hated in negotiation, it was the stubbornness of the prisoners.

The door cracked open, and Dominguez entered, smiling to him, but soon as he saw his expression, he wiped his smile off his face and sat across him.

"Is it that bad?", he asked poor Jason.

"She is a spoiled brat! Now she refuses to eat as well…we started pretty well for one bad ending."

"Please, calm down…", said the doctor, as his phone notified him that he had a new message. It was from Maria.

M: 'Let's meet tomorrow, around 9 pm?'

He smiled and proceeded to type as Rourke squinted at him.

"Who are you texting lately with the big grin on your face?", he asked his friend, who looked at him like he saw a ghost.

"N-no…it is just some discussion about ammunition, nothing important."

Rourke knew that he was a terrible liar and shook his head to his answer.

"I am serious! I…uh…need to go pick up more of it tomorrow."

"I will come with you to help out…"

"No, no…don't bother with that, keep your mind on the task I gave you…", he answered through the fake smile, obviously tensed.

"Whatever…I am off to her cell now."

He stood up and left the doctor to sit alone in the office. Rourke did not notice that the pen was still in his hand. As he was getting closer, he would nervously click the pen, unaware of it. Tina sits there with her head bowed down, raising it slightly as he entered. The void in her eyes made him uncomfortable, so he unbuttoned the top two buttons on his shirt and rolled his sleeves to his elbows.

"You decided to starve as well? Fine. It's none of my business. Also, you will not get another portion."

She smiled cynically at him, and this particular smile of hers made him furious from the beginning.

"I would rather die than eat this awful food."

"Bravo! That's the spirit", he answered, returning her the same smile.

He was trying to play her game with her from this moment on. ' _You have no idea what an asshole I can be…'_ , he thought while observing her confused face.

"You would let me starve?"

"Of course, why would I care about you?"

He suddenly realized that this was too much, but before he could proceed with all of what he has said, his interlocutor shed a couple of tears. Rourke's expression escalated from guilty to worried and to his usual 'I don't care face' in the range of few seconds.

"This is torturing…", she answered, quietly, through her tears.

The commander observed her for a couple of seconds and opened his mouth to speak, but soon as he opened them, he shut them and bit his lower lip. This led to the bleeding, so he sucked the small amount of blood and ran his hand through his hair nervously.

_'What is happening to me? Keep your composure, you idiot...'_

"All of this is unnecessary…I just need to get the information from you…that's all."

"Does it hurt?"

"What?"

"Your lip…"

"No, I am fine, but…wait, you are not in the position to question me! You are doing this again! God!", yelled Rourke nervously, getting up from his chair to making a couple of steps to calm himself.

Tina smiled at his clumsy reaction. He noticed and put his hands on his hips.

"Yeah, very funny! Cut the game already!"

"I did not do anything…"

"Yes, you did! I am the one who is questioning here!"

"Well, if you want some answers, you will need to untie me first."

"Not happening."

"And to feed me as well."

"Are you insane?! Do you realize that I could end your life if I want, right now? You are not the only source of information we need, so, therefore, you are replaceable!", said the commander pointing at her with every word.

"You wouldn't do it", answered the girl, with a confident tone.

"Oh, want to bet?", said Rourke pulling out his gun and getting closer to her. He gently rested the barrel of the gun on her forehead, observing the fear in her wet eyes. "This is your last chance. Where is he hiding?"

"You wouldn't shoot me…"

"Trust me that I will if you don't cooperate!"

"Then do it", she said suddenly, catching him off the guard completely. Rourke once again bit his wounded lip as his nose twitched a little.

"Did you get this stubbornness from your father? Just taking notes, in case we cross our paths and meet face to face."

"Fuck you", she said hatefully to him.

Jason stood there for a couple of minutes, battling his inner demons. The girl started to cry again and shake from the cold wind blowing through the cell cracks, and he couldn't stand it anymore. He removed the gun from her and furiously walked out. Slamming the door, he shouted to the guards to give her food and get her covered with something.

"Untie her hands as well!"

Storming off, he muttered to himself: "I can't do this anymore."

### (★★★)

Abby stayed in the manor for a while, explaining herself to the two other girls. She felt ashamed, but most importantly, she was afraid that she might lose Jonah. Lara and Sam accepted her apology and agreed with her to help her find Jonah.

"From the last night, he did not return at all…I stayed awake the whole night…he wouldn't answer my phone as well…", said Abby, as her voice cracked.

Sam was patting her back to calm her down, feeling equally down about the whole situation. Lara was already trying to reach him on the phone several times, but there was no answer at all.

"Maybe he stayed in the hotel?", she asked after the fifth unsuccessful attempt of calling.

"I just hope he is okay…"

"He will be fine. He is just…well… just Jonah. He surely needs some time to think and chill out."

"Let's hope so…How's your arm, Lara?"

"Fine, the bleeding already stopped. Don't worry about me…", said Lara as she heard the quiet hello on the other side of the line.

"Jonah! Thank God you are fine…We were worried about you!"

'We?', he asked, puzzled.

"Yes…Sam…and me…and Abby…Please, come to the manor, she wants to talk to you…"

'I don't know, Lara…I feel too fragile right now…Too embarrassed as well…'

"Jonah, everything is fine…Abby explained to us that it was not intentional…", she said, looking at the nodding Abby, who looked like she would start to cry at any moment, "…so please, come over…we are all friends at the end of the day…".

She shortly finished the call and smiled at the anticipating girls.

"He is coming soon."

### (★★★)

"We are getting closer, be ready", announced Konstantin to Elena sharply.

She grabbed her sniper from the back seat, slightly brushing her ponytail off his shoulder and his face.

He kept on focusing on the driving as the smell of her hair hit his nostrils. The smell of something sweet, but he couldn't remember what it was. He quickly forced out of his head the thought of her smell, shaking his head. She caught a glimpse of his strange behaviour and returned with a questionable look, which got his attention.

"Stop staring at me for no reason!"

"I am not…I just…"

"Stop it, whatever it is!"

The young girl nodded calmly, trying to hide how hurt she was. From this moment, she realized that he is hurting her intentionally, for whatsoever reason, so she kept her distance as much as she could, pulling herself closer to the window and gazing into the darkness. The commander pulled over sharply, making them both hit the front part of the car a bit.

"It's gone…", he said quietly, looking in the darkness.

"Maybe it's moved somewhere?"

"No, the key is in my pocket. Let's look further there...", said Konstantin, grabbing his weapon and getting out.

She followed behind him, making sure that no one is sneaking upon them. Then, he sharply stopped, and she hit his back with hers, mentally cursing to herself. They slowly turned to each other, and she smiled innocently, telling him that it was an accident. His facial expression told her not to repeat the same mistake, so she gulped loudly, swallowing the knot of tension standing in her dry throat. They continued to investigate more, but there were no indications of the van. The rain has already erased all the tier traces, so they could not tell what happened.

As they progressed, the storm got worse, and suddenly, the lightning hit the nearby tree, slicing it in half. Konstantin took a couple of steps behind as the girl let a small scream, grabbing his arm in a moment. Then, she realized that she was not supposed to be that close to him and retreated behind. He looked at her furiously and ordered her to go back in the car, but she refused, telling him that she needs to stay by his side. Pushing her back with his hand, he walked her to the car and shoved her inside. Closing the door, he locked the van with his key, leaving her puzzled with one hand on the window.

After some time, he returned, soaking wet from head to toe. He remained there for a while and smacked the steering wheel forcefully in anger, making Elena jump from her seat.

"God fuckin' damn!", he yelled and proceeded to turn on the vehicle, which gave no sound except sharp repeating sounds of failed attempts.

Making his way outside, once again, he inspected the car's motor to see if there was something wrong but found nothing and smacked the hood to close it. When he returned, he reached for his radio.

"Does anyone hear me? Over."

The small-signal cracking could be heard as the rain violently glazed the whole van, making the windows blurry.

'What's up?', said the Rourke from the other line.

"Send someone to pick us up...we are stuck here. The van won't start."

'What? What about the other one?'

"It is not here! Goddamn... just send someone over already!"

'I'll link you with Pedro because the weather is too risky right now...let's see what he says…', said Rourke, leaving him to wait, irritated.

'Konstantin, what's wrong?', said the doctor, visibly worried.

"The engine won't start…We have the fuel, but there is something else wrong…send someone over to pick us up already!"

'So, you haven't found the van?'

"NO! OBVIOUSLY!"

'Okay, calm down…Is Elena fine?'

"I'm good…", she answered him with a shaky voice.

'Okay, so there is no option right now, to send someone over…'

"What do you mean there is no option?!"

'It is too foggy and risky for driving; the storm is raging!'

"And what are we supposed to do? Freeze here?"

'Get somewhere safe 'till tomorrow…send me the address, and I'll send someone in the morning to collect you two. And don't waste time, get moving! I'm off.',

"But…", continued the blond commander as he heard the radio on the other side going off.

Slowly closing his eyes, he threw his head back and sank deeper into his seat, trying to calm his breathing. Slowly turning his head towards Elena, he noticed how pale her complexion went and how wet her hair was. She was hugging herself to get warmer.

"Get your things. We are going to find a room for the night…"

As they abandoned in a hurry their safe spots for the search of another one, they did not notice that someone was observing them, hidden nearby.

**Visuals:**

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**Elena's childhood** ** neighbourhood **

** **

** Angry R **

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** Elena and K on mission **

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** Storm **


	14. 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐞

"How much longer? I feel like I am going to die...", said Elena as they stopped for the eight-time to take a break and hide from the rain.

She squatted and put her hands on her knees, trying to make up her lost oxygen. Her ally looked far more beaten because it was the first time in a while that he had a proper run. His age caught up with him. It looked like they were running forever and that there were no nearby places to stay for the night. The distance looked empty. Endless fields were the only thing that could be seen.

Wiping off the rain from his face, he answered in an annoyed tone to the girl next to him.

"If you are going to complain the whole time, just find your own place to sleep!"

She looked at him with her eyes wide like an owl. She did not believe that he didn't care for her at all, basically telling her to get lost.

"I was just…"

"I don't care! Keep moving!", he replied, cutting her sentence sharply.

After some wandering, they stumbled upon a small hostel.

It looked too old and spooky in the stormy weather. Elena hesitated at first but decided to follow him in. It would be better for her to stick with her commander than to risk and be somewhere else, alone. He walked slowly to the small reception noticing the short man behind it.

The man stood up and greeted them with a creepy smile on his face. _'What happened to you two…'_ he thought, noticing how wet they were.

The young woman smiled lightly at him as she stood behind Konstantin's back.

"Room for two?", asked the receptionist, already handling them the small, rusty key.

"Two rooms", answered Konstantin, correcting him. The guy made an uncomfortable face and paused as he looked alternately at them.

"I am sorry…there is only one room available…also", he paused and leaned closer to them as he whispered, "the guests are a bit crazy…I am sure that the lady is the only female here, so it will be safer if you two stick together…".

When he finished the small speech, he smiled at them awkwardly, knowing that he just made up the story because he noticed Elena's disappointment when her friend demanded a separate room.

Konstantin furrowed his eyebrows. Hesitating a bit, he grabbed the key from the surface. Then, he reached for his wallet and proceeded to pay, refusing his ally's offer to pay half of the price.

"Would you like dinner as well?", asked the receptionist politely, showing them the small and poor menu.

"Make it for two, and bring it upstairs."

"Of course, it will be ready in an hour."

There was no elevator in the building, so they climbed stairs to the last floor. Reaching for the key, the commander glanced over the tired girl. He could tell that she was not in her usual element from her glassy eyes. The room was pretty small, with old vintage furniture pieces and a weak window in the middle, just above the double bed. There was also a small bathroom that was leading from the room. It was warm already, and Elena sighed in relief, proceeding to take off her soaked jacket. Unfortunately for them, their uniforms were not waterproof, so the rain got through all the layers they had on them.

"Hey, do you think that they have some spare pyjamas here?", she asked Konstantin and turned around to face him. Seeing him completely naked and ready for the shower, she blushed madly and turned around again quickly, covering her face, embarrassed. "S-sorry…I-I did not see anything…",

The pause was long as he was proceeding with what just happened. Then, he smirked and walked past her to the bathroom, calmly answering her question.

"You should call the reception and ask…do you want to shower first?"

"Yup…no…you go first, sir."

Smacking her forehead, she cursed slowly _'you idiot!'_ , and looked around for the telephone.

"Hello, um, we just got our room, and I was wondering if there are some spare pyjamas here…please?"

'There are only some bathrobes in the bathroom, miss... we don't have anything else.'

"Oh, okay…thank you."

Konstantin took a brisk shower, scrubbing his hair hard. He felt nervous and irritated about the situation he was in.

 _'They will pay for this tomorrow…morons…'_ , he referred to the doctor and Rourke in his mind.

Quickly sliding out, he roughly dried himself with a towel, slid in his underwear, and grabbed one of the bathrobes, which were hung on the door. The bathrobe was small for his muscles, so it squeezed him tightly around his arms. He was grateful that he could close it properly regardless of the problem.

As soon as he walked out, Elena jumped inside, avoiding any eye contact with him.

"Food is ready! Can I come in?", called the guy behind the closed doors while knocking lightly.

"Yes…", said the commander and continued to follow the guy with his look. "Just leave it there…"

"Of course, call if you need anything else."

When he left, Konstantin sighed and realized how hungry he was, but decided to wait for his ally, so he sits on the edge of the bed. The bed was also on the smaller side, with a lighter cover. The van popped again in his mind, and he closed his eyes. _'Someone is fucking with me…I left it there…'_.

Meanwhile, while he was thinking about this failed attempt, Elena panicked in the shower. _'I will be sleeping next to a man in my panties and bra, and I did not even shave my legs…why it needs to be like this…'_ , she thought, almost crying.

Searching around, she found some old razor in the cabinet. _'Someone surely left it behind…'_. It was in perfect condition, so she thought that it could be useful. It was going smoothly until she cut her leg.

"Damn it!", she cursed loudly enough for her ally to hear from the other room.

"Are you okay?", he asked in the distance.

"Yeah!", she awkwardly confirmed, hoping that he won't notice the cut. The last thing she wanted was him finding out that she put any effort into her look.

_'What am I even doing...this is ridiculous…'._

### (★★★)

'The thing is done, as you asked. They did not see me. I'm on my way to find them now.'

Rocky read the message on his phone, with a big grin on his face, and replied with a simple- 'Good'.

Then, he opened his contacts and pressed on Lara's phone number. After a couple of rings, she answered.

'Hello?'

He could tell that there were other people near her from the loud chatter he heard.

"I suppose you had an enemy that you were hiding from…", he answered simply.

She went silent for a couple of minutes as the chatter died down. He assumed she was distanced from others now.

'How would you know this? Do you work with them?', she asked with a trembly voice.

"You did not let me finish… He will be dead by the morning. There is no need for fear anymore."

Another silence broke between them.

'You are joking with me…'

"Okay, think whatever you want. But don't get surprised when you receive a picture of him slaughtered", said Rocky slowly each word, biting his large joint between his teeth.

'…and now…you want something in return, I suppose? I never asked of you to do this.'

"Just a meeting…in a restaurant. Dress something elegant. I'll send you the place and the time…"

Hanging up, he threw the phone on the table, satisfied, and slowly inhaled the smoke, letting it fill his lungs.

### (★★★)

Rourke could not fall asleep. His eyes refused to shut, so he stayed in his bed, lying down and thinking about Tina. He wasn't worried about questioning, but he worried for her wellbeing. His own room was pretty cold, so he knew that the cell was ten times worse, plus, there was no screaming that could be heard, like usual. Turning from one side to the other, he was trying to find a comfortable position, but he gave up after some time and got up.

 _'I should check on her…'_ , he thought, just as someone knocked on his door.

"Are you awake?", asked a female voice, whispering.

Jason did not expect it, so he looked towards it in the half-darkness for some time.

"Hey, do you hear me?", said that voice again.

"Who is this?", he said, getting closer and leaning to the door to hear better.

"It's me, please open...I have something for you…"

Hesitatingly, he opened the door, revealing Tanya. She carried a big box in her arms. Jason looked slowly up and down and gulped as he realized that she was wearing her short nightgown. Her hair was down and messy, and she had a pair of fluffy slippers on her feet.

"At last!", she said, passing him by as she got inside.

He turned around in disbelief and looked in the dark hallway, checking if someone was around before the closing. He switched the light on, and the girl covered her eyes with her hand.

"Are you crazy?! What do you want here?", Jason said, barely above the whisper.

She smiled goofily and sat on his bed, opening the box.

"Hey, I never allowed you to sit!"

"Let's pretend like we are friends for the night…", she answered, slowly opening the box with various types of sweets. "I got it from some guy here, but I did not have anyone to share with…I hope you are down for it."

"You broke into my private room just to share sweets with me?", he asked, annoyed.

"Well, yes…I hope it is not a problem…"

"This is ridiculous, and on top of that, what are you wearing in the presence of one commander?"

Tanya looked shocked and then broke into a laugh, suppressing it with her hand.

"And your undies are on fleek as well…", she said, wiping a small tear from her eye.

He furrowed his brows and grabbed a pair of nearby sweatpants.

"I could punish you for that, you know?"

"I know, but you love me, remember? You said that I am your girlfriend, did you forget already?", answered the girl with a flirty voice while swirling the string of her hair around her finger.

Rourke could not believe his eyes, so he blinked and shook his head as he walked towards her. He sat as well next to her and observed. She already had a piece of glazed doughnut in her mouth. Her outfit looked provocative, and because of that, he kept his eyes on her stuffed face.

"Take some…"

"No, I'm good."

"You are not fun! Come on! I came to share some food with you… I have some alcohol as well..."

"What do you really want?"

Soon enough, her face turned into a surprised one as she realized that he was moody.

"Why so aggressive?", she asked, making him shake his head at her.

"I was trying to sleep, and then you came in without invitation…Don't act like this is okay!"

"We can sleep after we eat this…".

"Yeah, right…"

"And I could stay so we can have more fun…", Tanya added quietly, looking at his eyes and licking off the chocolate from her lips.

The commander was taken aback, so he literally leaned back with his body, thinking if she was for real at this moment.

"Okay, it is too late. You should pick up your food and leave. Otherwise, it will not turn out good for both of us."

"Are you scared?", she asked suddenly, chewing her food softly.

"Scared of what? You are just testing my patience…"

"No, I just gave a preposition."

"To fuck?", asked Rourke, raising his eyebrows, ironically.

"If you want to, why not…"

There was an awkward silence, and he could not believe what she just said, so he kept on staring at her. Then, with a sarcastic grin, he squinted with his eyes.

"I don't think that you could last too long with me."

"Hmm…so you are that good?", asked the girl as she leaned closer to his face.

Rourke decided to play along and leaned too close, just an inch from her mouth, biting his own lips.

"Too bad that you won't ever find that out."

He smiled as her expression went blank. Grabbing her forearm, he got her on her feet. Showing the box in her hands, he gently pushed her back to the doors and threw her out.

"Next time, when you become horny, ask another guy. Oh, and good luck."

Then, he closed the door, leaving the young women behind to stare for a while in embarrassment.

### (★★★)

"What's wrong, Lara?", asked Jonah, noticing how absent she was.

Abby argued with him for the longest time, making everyone uncomfortable. He could tell that from the phone call she received earlier, she wasn't herself.

"I feel like you guys will bury me here on the spot if I tell you…but, I feel like I will explode if I keep it inside for a bit longer…"

Sam came closer to her and hugged her, showing how worried she was.

"What happened? Who was it from?"

"If you guys remember, I got a gun…not long ago…and the guy who sold me just called. He said…", she paused, biting her lip hard before continuing: "…he said that he is going to kill Konstantin…".

Everybody went silent and stared at her.

"What? How he knows about him?", asked Jonah.

"I don't know. I think he sold them some weapons as well…He mentioned some military people purchasing stuff from him before…I think he thought about them."

"There is an entire military behind those three dudes?!", asked Abby, slightly raising her voice.

The tension was rising, slowly, as two women looked at each other. Jonah and Sam stayed quiet.

"He did not say any of the details, but…"

"But what? When did you plan to tell us this, Lara? When we all got caught into the web, again?"

"Abby, please, we don't know this…", said Jonah, grabbing her hand as he tried to calm her down, but she pulled it back and turned to him.

"I am done with this nonsense! I feel like we are in the constant circle of anticipation for something bad to happen…I am not okay with this!"

After her speech, she took her jacket and stormed off. The three remaining people sit there in silence, just looking at each other.

"And... he asked me out…"

### (★★★)

The dinner passed by slowly for Konstantin and Elena. They ate in complete silence, listening to the storm outside and occasionally looking at one another. She was relieved that he did not notice the cut at the back of her calf, so she stayed calm most of the time. On the other hand, Konstantin looked tensed. His shoulder muscles were visible under the tight bathrobe, and his face was grumpy for most of the time. He finished before Elena, so he was waiting for her.

"Why are you bluffing?", he asked suddenly, making her head rise.

"What?"

"Trying to eat as slow as possible…"

"I'm not…this is my usual pace…", she answered slowly, confused.

Konstantin crossed his arms and decided not to answer any further, which made the girl uncomfortable, so she hurried with eating. After she finished, she put the tray on the small wooden desk nearby and made her way towards the bed.

Just when she wanted to get in, he grabbed her hand and stopped her.

"Before bed, we pray."

She gave him a confused look once again and obeyed his command. She followed his example as he kneeled in front of the bed and started to pray mentally.

 _'This is too strange…',_ she thought, pretending to pray as well. Seeing him open his eyes again, she closed hers and made it look like she was praying. Soon, she opened them and blinked innocently at him.

"You go first, by the wall."

"Um, sir, can I- "

"NO! And stop wasting time, I am tired, and I am sure you are too!", he barked, quickly turning off the lights.

Elena quickly slid under the blanket on her side of the bed and sighed. She never liked to feel trapped while she sleeps, so this position between the wall and Konstantin made her feel uneasy. She laid on her back, staring petrified at the ceiling.

Her commander also crawled next to her, giving her an odd look, and awkwardly covered himself.

 _'She is crazy…'_ , he thought when he saw her acting unnatural. Both of them were in their bathrobes, so he was making sure not to touch her bare skin with his. He turned his head again to look at her, just to find her not blinking at all.

"Blink if you are fine...", he said dead serious, and she cracked a bit and took a deep breath. "What's wrong with you?", he continued, meaning every word he said.

"I am fine, just tired."

"With a wide eye open…it looks like you are plotting to escape." He turned his back to her and sighed heavily.

"Good night, sir", said Elena, also turning to face the cold wall.

"You can't do that!", he said, abruptly standing in the half-sitting position and furrowing his eyebrows.

His ally shot him a questionable look across her shoulder and quietly said: "what?".

"You are not supposed to turn your back to your superiors like that! It's disrespectful!", said Konstantin, making her turn around once again to lay on her back.

This was all unknown to her because it was the first time that she slept in the bed next to her commander, so she said quickly 'sorry' and returned a guilty gaze to him. Bringing his hands to his face, he turned to her this time, holding a distance. His hot breath was hitting her forehead, and he could feel his cold eyes on her.

It was strange to both of them how they smelled the same after a shower, and it made Elena blush as she realized.

_'Thank God it is dark...he can't see...'_

"You did have to shave your legs for me.", he suddenly said as his baritone words filled her ears.

"I did not…"

"You have blood on your calf."

"I hit myself…"

"Can you stop lying to me? It does not work like that."

She felt bad because she did not hide it well, so she pushed the lies further.

"I would not lie to you; it would be unprofessional."

"Can you just shut up and stop throwing yourself into the deeper hole?"

Elena stood up quickly, sitting up and furrowed her eyebrows at him, looking hurt and like she is going to start crying any second.

"Why do you hate me so much?!", she yelled but quickly shut her mouth in fear as she saw him rise upon her too.

His expression told her that she is going to be dead at any moment soon.

"Were you just yelling at me?", he asked dangerously low.

"I…I just can't stand this anymore…I never did anything wrong to you, and I don't see a reason to treat me like shit."

The answer was much calmer, but she shed a couple of tears while explaining herself.

"I did it for myself…I thought that…", she continued, but before she could finish her sentence, she felt his hand grabbing her head from behind, and his lips met hers. It happened so quickly that she did not have any time to proceed with what happened, so she lost all of her thoughts and returned the kiss. He kissed her slowly, gently caressing her neck. Then, he stopped and rested his forehead on hers, intensely looking at her confused face. It was the first time for him to kiss someone like this, willingly and gently.

"I told you to shut up and to stop lying…", he whispered to her while still looking at her.

Elena was lost in her own world. She did not even understand what he just told her and kept on starring back.

Konstantin pulled her down and rested her to lay once again. Hugging her softly, he pulled her close to him, resting his chin on her temple.

Soon, they both fall asleep in each other's arms, enjoying the warmth of their close bodies.

**Visuals:**

****

**Spooky small motel**

****

**K's and Elena's room**

****

**Rocky thinking about Lara**

****

**K kissing Elena**


	15. 𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬

The night was passing slowly for two people. They would alternately wake up to find the other near and curled beside them. Elena could not believe it, and she felt awkward every time she opened her eyes and found her commander's hand around her body in various positions. Tangling her cold feet in his, he flinched a bit and looked over her almost visible face.

"Are you cold?", he asked suddenly, leaving space for her brain to process his question.

"Just a little bit…sir…", answered Elena, saying the last word awkwardly.

He was quiet after this, but the truth was that he liked to feel dominant, and it did not bother him, regardless of the kiss that happened before. Every time he would wake up, he would feel guilty for kissing her.

 _'She is too young…what am I even doing…'_ , he thought.

Her cranky voice interrupted his thoughts, once again.

"Sir…can I ask you why did you kiss me?"

He opened his eyes more widely and proceeded to breathe slowly, letting her feel his breath on her face.

"To shut you up…", he answered, but inside, he felt as confused as she was.

"I felt something in that kiss…", she continued slowly.

Elena knew that there was more behind his words, but she could not confirm it since he kept acting tough.

"Don't fool yourself."

"What will happen if it repeats?"

The commander went silent once again, thinking about it. He felt multiply erections during this night, and he could not deny that he would rather consume her whole if something happens from this point on.

Deciding to throw away this imaginary scenario, he answered coldly to Elena to go back to sleep and not fantasize anymore. Little did he know that she was not going to stop until she gets the truth, so she slowly slid her hand across his arm, down to his stomach, and that was there he caught her hand and stopped her.

"What are you doing?", Konstantin asked, locking his eyes with hers. "You are nothing more than an ally to me... I thought I was clear…", he continued with his deep whisper.

At that moment, something was telling him to give in as he observed her, but he quickly looked away. Not caring about his speech, she did it again, but this time sliding her hand under his bathrobe. She touched his abs lightly, feeling his scars under her fingers. The scars that he got after the battle with Lara in the Lost city were almost healed but could be felt with a touch, and no one ever touched him there, or in this way, so he took a deep breath and furrowed his eyebrows to her.

"You were playing innocent just a few moments ago…", he added slowly. "This is unacceptable…stop it, right this instant!", hissed the commander, but it looked like she did not listen to him.

Feeling the tension in his private part, he quickly grabbed her and pinned her hands on the bed, jumping on top of her. The anger in him got conflicted with his desire at this moment, so he just stared at her with an angry expression. He could tell that she was scared and that her heart was racing fast, and her breathing went heavy.

"I am not playing with you; you will make me hate you for what you have done!"

"I want to know the truth…", she said with a small voice, basically pleading for him to do more than just watching.

 _'Why does she have such an effect on me?',_ thought Konstantin as he leaned to her right ear and whispered: "You won't be able to follow me through what you desire…".

Elena felt the hairs on her neck rising and turned her head to whisper back to his ear.

"I feel like there is so much more stuff we could discover if you give in…commander."

It was the last straw for him because he was fully turned on because of her provocative words. Slowly, he swallowed and put his lips on her neck. He felt her tremble upon him, so he decided to take it slowly and as merciless as he could. No woman will make him fall in love, and this sentence stayed in his head while he slowly kissed Elena, who was now laying there with her eyes closed.

"You are enjoying this?", he whispered again to her, smiling slightly.

"Uh-uh…", she answered simply to him.

"Don't regret this after…it will be a long night for you then…I need to teach you a few things. You have been disobeying me the whole night."

"I was good enough to see through your intentions…"

"Right, you think I like you? This is just a dry desire that man gets. Don't think that I fell in love with you after that one kiss."

"I think you are just playing tough…".

He maintained the look as he slid his hand slowly down to her panties.

Elena flinched and stood to sit up, stopping his hand. He was really doing it, and she did not expect him to touch her pussy this fast, so she looked in shock.

"What? You thought I was joking?", he answered while feeling the slimy wetness on his fingers.

"I want to take it slow, I-", she continued, but he kissed her again, shutting her up as he slowly rubs her lips, spreading the moisture everywhere.

"There is no turning back now…", he whispered while undoing her bathrobe.

Slowly reviling her underwear, he placed a couple of kisses on her chest. She let a small moan and instantly went red in her cheeks.

"Take it off...", she whispered, referring to her bra, but he looked at her sharply.

"I make rules here, and you are playing along…"

His talk turned her on more with every new word, so she threw her head backward in the pillow as she felt his tongue traveling down her stomach to her inner tights. All she could think about was how many mixed sensations she was feeling. He slowly teased her clitoris with his thumb, making her crazy for him even more. After a couple of kisses on her tights, he proceeded to eat her pussy out, so she started to make more sincere noises. The warmth and taste of her body made him enjoy this game, so he slowly licked her while holding down her abdomen with his hand to stop her from moving around too much.

"Yes, like that…", she whispered as he brought his finger to her mouth, pressing them to be quiet.

He did not have any experience in making love, so this flew naturally for him somehow. His body felt like it will explode, and his penis started to tingle from skin stretching. Sucking off her juices from his finger, she continued to lick it, feeling like she is on cloud nine.

"Fuck…", she whispered.

The commander stopped and pressed her lips harder.

"You are forbidden to speak!", he said, rising upon her face. "You want to play…let's play…".

Placing his lips again on her mouth, he kissed her roughly. She noticed that he was not giving out too many emotions or sounds, which drove her insane. Grabbing her by her shoulders, he forcefully turned her around to lay on her stomach.

Gliding with his fingertips on her skin, he noticed her fine hairs standing up, so he kept on with it for a few more seconds before opening her bra. It took him a bit to undo it since he never really done this before. She was visibly shaking now, which made him feel like he could conquer her with ease, but he continued his play by grabbing her ass and smacking it. She let a small scream and turned her head to look at him. Curling his lips in a small smile, he proceeded to take off his boxers.

"Turn your head around", he ordered, and she hesitantly obeyed.

The thought of having sex with her commander excited her, but on the other hand, she was scared of what will be happening between them after this pleasure ends. Konstantin had a second thought about doing this with her, and that it could be for the best if they stop after the teasing.

 _'God, forgive me for this…'_ , he thought as he spread her legs and slid his finger inside her, making her vaginal muscles tense.

Sliding in and out, he noticed that she was slowly rocking her body as well, joining the rhythm, so he slapped her ass again, harder, and stopped what he was doing.

"If you don't cooperate, I will stop completely. ", he said slowly.

"Please, don't…", she barely could answer.

He leaned against her back and buried his face in her hair, sliding two fingers this time. Her moans became more excited, and he sped up the pace.

"Is this what you want, huh?", he breathed in her ear, inhaling her scent. "Answer me, dammit!"

"N-Yes…"

"Good…"

Grabbing her hips, he put her roughly on her knees in a doggy style and pulled her hair with his hand. Then, he checked if he is excited enough to enter her. Finding out that he was, he slid inside, slowly. Elena felt how huge he was, so she gasped and opened her mouth, holding herself down from letting a painful scream. At first, it felt weird for him, especially because he was not big in showing any emotions, but he found out that he actually enjoyed this experience. Despite his silent side, he let out a couple of sounds of pleasure. Gradually picking up the pace, he made sure that she was yearning for him, so he stopped a couple of times and placed a couple of kisses on her back.

"Why you do this?", she asked with a teary eye.

Konstantin noticed how beautiful she looked at this moment, with messy hair all over and blushed cheeks, so he just kissed her on her lips, feeling his heart beating faster.

 _'This is so wrong…'_ , his mind told him as he felt his emotions evolving for her.

After this, the commander just continued to fuck her hard in a couple more positions, holding himself from telling her anything. Elena managed to have an orgasm, and it was intense, so he suppressed her moans with his hand across her mouth. When he felt that he's too close to release his fluids, he pulled away and sighed deeply with closed eyes.

Just when he wanted to finish himself on her body, someone forcefully banged on their door. They both turned their heads in the direction of that sound and then to each other. Showing her with his finger to be quiet, he got up and grabbed his boxers and quickly slid in them. The banging sound repeated, and he grabbed his gun from a holster, slowly approaching the door. The woman sits in the bed, pulling the covers higher to her chest, and made a worried expression with her face.

"Yes?", said Konstantin while leaning with his back on the wall next to the door, but he got no answer.

They were not too loud during sex, so it came out unexpected. Checking the time on the big clock on the wall, he noticed that it was four in the morning, so he furrowed his eyebrows and looked back at Elena. She was shaking her head in disbelief. Being unarmed and far from her weapons, she felt the tension rising. Gently grabbing the key, he unlocked the door, and as soon as he did it, someone kicked the door open.

A pair of strong arms grabbed Konstantin's hand and twisted it with a strong force, making him fall on his knees.

Elena screamed and got on her feet, totally forgetting that she was completely naked.

The dude was big and masked, wearing black from head to toe. He carried a gun, and as soon as he placed it on Konstantin's head, she already got her sniper towards him.

"Stop!", she yelled, drawing his attention to her.

Not expecting to see such a picture in front of his eyes, he stopped and blinked for a couple of seconds, which were enough for the commander to pull his legs and knocked him to the ground. The fall was hard, and the guy let go of his gun and stayed there, laying down in pain. Kicking the gun away from him, Konstantin narrowed the one he had in his hand towards his head and made an angry expression. If he could explode at this moment, he would.

"Who are you?", he asked, dangerously low.

The dude stayed silent, obviously aware of the death that awaits him.

"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU? SPEAK!", yelled Konstantin while leaning closer to their enemy.

When he got no answer again, he shot him in the head, not even blinking twice.

His ally just stood there in shock, not knowing how cold-blooded he could be. That side of his scared her, so she lowered her sniper and stayed buried in the spot. His body was shaking from the rage and adrenalin, so he took a couple of deep breaths, closing his eyes slowly. If there were no suppressor, the whole building would be awakened by now, so he was thankful for that.

Searching through the pockets of the guy's jacket, he found a small cell phone inside one. Shortly after scrolling through it, he found a contact he needed.

It was written 'Boss', so he pressed the call button. A few rings passed, and a very familiar voice answered.

'Did you finish?'

Konstantin froze as he realized who was on the other side. Squeezing the phone, he felt his wound in his hand bleeding once again.

"He did not manage to finish me, but be sure that I will finish you as soon as possible", answered Konstantin and hung up, smashing the phone forcefully on the wall.

Hesitating a bit, Elena gathered the courage to speak.

"Who was it?"

"Rocky...get ready, we are leaving now…"

"But…"

"NO BUT'S! The fun is over!", he shouted at her, grabbing his clothes from the chair.

### (★★★)

Dominguez was deep in his dreams when he heard his radio on the side table, cracking. He thought it was just rain pouring from outside and turned around, completely ignoring it.

'ARE YOU DEAF?', screamed someone from the other side of the line, and he jumped on his bed, looking with his eyes half-opened towards the radio. He could not tell if it was a dream or someone was shouting at him.

"What the hell?", he asked while looking towards the radio.

'IT'S KONSTANTIN! I CALLED YOU FOR SOME TIME NOW!'

"Oh, it's you. I thought I was still asleep…"

'Get your head out your ass and send over someone to drive us back…'.

The doctor rubbed his eyes and checked his phone for the time.

"God, it is too early…Did something happened?"

'Your friend happened.'

"Huh?", he asked him, completely astonished.

'Rocky sent an assassin after us…'.

Completely confused, he felt his blood starting to boil in his chest. He wanted so badly to kick something nearby but stayed on the spot, gazing into the early morning light.

"I'm sending Rourke over. He will pick you up. Stay hidden and be on the line with him…", he announced, turning off the radio.

 _'Rocky…you will pay for this…you have no idea in what shit you got yourself into'_ , thought Pedro, while clenching his jaw and hands forcefully.

Rourke was already awake, patrolling around the base. He was checking on Tina from time to time, observing her from the small hole in the cell door. Every bit of him told him to take her out and get her to the warmer place, but he could not let his guard and pride down like that. She was rolled in a blanket, with her head bowed, and her food was still intact, so he was worried. Because of her, he did not sleep at all that night. His eyes became blue and swollen. The radio on his uniform beeped, and the doctor's pissed voice cracked through it.

"Get a van and go to pick up Konstantin and Elena! They are in trouble; they cannot stay there for too long, so be quick!", he announced and hung up.

He sighed and rolled his eyes while leaning his forehead on the door. Grumpily he turned away from the cell and mumbled slowly to himself.

"Just give an order, captain, and I'll fly away…"

### (★★★)

"Boss…he did not make it…", stated one of Rocky's men to him with a half-scared voice, referring to their assassin.

His boss just sat there in his chair, biting his joint harder than usual, and did not answer. He thought that those guys would be easy prey, so it made him think deeper about what he should do. On the other side, Lara has to become his. From the time he saw her, he felt a connection with her, regardless of the lack of conversation they had before. He could not hide that he liked tough chicks, and her mysterious personality made his heart flutter. Thought of her chocolate eyes gave him instant wind in the back. Giving up was not an option for him at all.

 _'If the way to her heart is hard, let it be this way…'_ , he thought, deciding to push this further.

Rocky put aside the fact that they still owed him money, and all he thought about was the possible scenarios for destroying them all.

"Gather everyone here. We have some flies for liquidation."

**Visuals:**

****

**K and Elena**

****

**Rocky's assassin**

****

**D speaking with K about attack**


	16. 𝐈𝐭 𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐥

For the last hour, Konstantin and Elena stood outside, and it felt like an eternity for them. There were no words that would escape their mouths. The only thing that kept them the company was wind and a couple of raindrops slowly falling on their faces. Hidden in the shadows, they wished to go as far as possible from what just happened in the hotel. Elena was shocked and concerned more because of Konstantin's feelings than because of the murder he just committed. Looking at him with side-eyes from time to time, she noticed that he was too nervous to talk. One of his legs tapped impatiently on the ground, and his boot got ruined by the mud, but it looked like he didn't care for that.

Slowly bringing her hand on his shoulder, she said quietly:

“If you need someone to talk this through, just to let you know I will listen…”

It was too obvious that he didn't want to talk about anything at this point, but to get even worse, he forcefully shoved her arm from his body and turned to her scared face.

“Don’t pity me! My choice was beyond wholesome since he showed up like that, coward!”, he yelled and turned around again.

His ally stared at him, frowning.

“Okay, I understand…why do you yell at me?”, she asked silently.

"Did you already forgot who am I to you?", he asked angrily.

This snapped her back into reality, and she tried to hold the emotions she felt inside her.

“Yes, I know, sir…but…”

"Just know your place!", he yelled, and she immediately shut her mouth.

Contemplating if she should say anything else, the words flew out on their own, breaking the silence once again.

"So, what happened between us didn't mean anything at all to you?", Elena asked with a visible hurt in her voice.

Konstantin was one, very hard, person to deal with in general, and she kept this information somewhere in the corner of her brain. But now, every bit of her refused to believe it, since she saw his gentle side.

"This concludes that you did not listen to me at all…I said to you that there is nothing between us…", he answered and continued, "This means nothing to me…".

As soon as he said this, he felt regret, knowing that it could not be completely true.

“Fine.”

This answer made him look at her once again, and he found out that her tears were rolling down her cheeks, slowly. She finally turned to him and took a sturdy military position.

"Sir, do I have permission to go?", she asked, and he furrowed his brows, observing the crying girl.

“Where?”, he shouted in her face.

“I will walk to the base”, she answered calmly while looking through him, with her vision unfixed.

“No, Rourke will be here soon!”

"Do I have permission, sir?", she repeated.

“NO! YOU CAN’T WALK TO THE OTHER SIDE OF ENGLAND!", he yelled back at her, and she bit her lip and shook her head.

Then she proceeded to walk away, clenching her fists and mumbling on her way.

“Oh, fuck it, I don’t need your permission…”, and that was all he could catch before she went further from him.

The commander stood there in shock in the first couple of seconds, and when he realized that she is legit walking away and disobeying, he picked up the pace after her and called her name several times, but she did not answer.

Finally, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her back to face him. He was angry, but she was twice as angry and hurt, so he didn't know what to say. Snitching her hand out of his grip, he widened his eyes and clenched his fists. How badly he wanted to speak at this moment, but he couldn't find any suitable words. Instead, he sighed and closed his eyes for a moment to collect his thoughts.

"First of all, I would usually punish those who do not follow the commands, but I will let it slide this time. You need to understand that…", he paused as he observed how deshelled she looked, and he picked her chin to look him in the eyes before continuing. "You need to understand that I am your superior…We cannot pretend like we are in love…", he said with a half-whisper, as he watched disappointment growing stronger on her face.

"I understand. You just fucked me, and now you plan to ditch me completely?", asked Elena coldly, and it surprised him, so he dropped his hand and just stared at her. "Listen, I know that I am not supposed to behave this way, but you make me lose my mind all the time! I can't believe what you have just said, and for your information, it hurts!", she screamed, and he backed off a bit. "I am going now, don't come after me because you don't care either way!" The last sentence was filled with cracked tones in her voice as she pointed her index finger to his chest, making her point even stronger. Finally, turning around once again, she stormed off, wiping the tears off her cheeks. Turning back once again, for the end, she yelled in the distance: "And no, I am not in love with you! You are just another heartless bastard!"

Watching her disappear in the distance, Konstantin stood in one spot and tried to breathe as deep as possible. Feeling some chest pain, he pressed his hand against it, visibly getting concerned.

 _'What is that feeling?',_ he thought.

It was beyond physical pain, but he couldn't separate it, so he made a mental note to visit a doctor in the base, assuming that it was his wound from the knife he got in the fight with Croft.

A small cracking from the radio appeared, and Rourke spoke to him, yawning in the process.

“Just to let you know that I hate you both for making me your personal driver…I am getting closer. Rourke out.”

### (★★★)

"Sir, the girl is not very well…she is not responding to our words…", announced one of the recruits to Dominguez which was texting with Maria the whole morning.

He quickly erased his half-smile and looked over his soldier.

“Did you tried to feed her? Water?”, he asked.

“No sir, she refuses all of this…and…”, he stopped, gulping as his throat moved up and down.

“Yes?”, said the doctor encouraging him to continue.

“She…she is calling commander Rourke…from time to time…she might have high fever as well…”, he barely said as Dominguez smacked his table with his hands, getting up.

"I TOLD YOU TO KEEP AN EYE ON HER!", he yelled and walked past the scared soldier, making his way towards the cell. _'Oh Rourke, you idiot… what have you done again?’_

Quickly walking in, he moved the soldiers and measured her temperature with his hand on her forehead.

“She is burning! Take her to my office…I’ll come shortly to give her some meds…”, he ordered as two guards took her by her arms and walked her out.

Pedro took out his radio and turned it on, raising his voice at Rourke.

"For fuck sake, haven't I told you not to become close to the prisoner?”, he asked, waiting for a response that came shortly.

‘Huh? What I did now?’, Rourke said on the other side as the rumble of a van he was driving interrupted most of his words.

“Really, don’t play dumb. She is calling your name!”, he answered, pissed out.

There was a silence for some time, and Jason spoke again.

‘What did she say?’, he asked, and Dominguez slapped his forehead.

"Did you really just asked this?", he asked, raising his voice.

‘Well yeah, I am curious…’

"Finish this and come back… Ether pull out the words from her mouth, or I will send someone else to do it! I'm out!"

'Wait, now I am guilty? Doc, you really just-', he continued, but the doctor turned off the radio and stormed out to treat the sick girl.

Rourke was pissed that he did not hear what she was saying, so he threw the radio on the back seat as it bounces and falls to the ground.

"Am I a joke to you all…You will see…just wait…", he mumbled to himself as he speeded up.

Reaching the spot where another commander and Elena were, he noticed that it was empty, but he pulled over regardless and got out. Sunrays from the fragile winter sun hit his eyes, and he protected them with his hand while searching for his people in the distance. Someone entered the van behind him, and as he heard the sound of the doors, he turned around quickly, pulling out his gun and aiming at the vehicle, just to find Konstantin sitting there and looking at him like he lost his mind. Rourke itched his head and motioned him with another one that he is crazy, twisting in the air. His ally rolled his eyes and looked away, so he made his way to join him inside.

"Where is girly?", he asked the blond commander, who continued to look on the other side like he is ignoring him.

“She left”, he answered with a low tone.

"What?! Did she leave? Where?"

"I don't know, nor I care."

Rourke was in awe and stood with the opened door for a while.

"How you don't know, dude, you can't just let girl disappear!", he raised his voice.

"I told her to stay, but she left. What was I supposed to do? Beg her?", he said too annoyed, and his partner listened carefully before bursting into a small laugh.

That gesture confused Konstantin, and he looked at him, even weirder.

"Did you two fought?", asked Rourke, covering his mouth with his hand, suppressing the laugh.

He saw that his companion is lost like a puppy, but soon enough, he tried to sit on the driver's seat, obviously wanting to leave him behind. Jason stopped him and got inside, laughing behind the steering wheel.

"Just drive, you imbecile!", yelled his angry ally and looked away.

Wiping a small tear from his eye, Rourke calmed down a bit and started the engine.

"Oh, you are so in love that you just don't know what hit you, my dude…"

"I am not in love! Stop making scenarios in your dumb head!"

“We will see…we need to find her, right?”

“I don’t care.”

“Sure, you don’t care…Konstantin the tough guy, from this moment the heart breaker as well…”, he mocked and felt a forceful hit on his biceps. “Ouch…that hurts, are you nuts?”, continued Rourke, caressing his arm.

"If you make any new comment, your head will be next", said Konstantin calmly, and his driving buddy motioned to his mouth that he will zip it while a small chuckle escaped against his will.

### (★★★)

In Rocky's office, the atmosphere became more serious than ever. He sat with his best men, discussing the possible attack plan, while the others observed, gathered around them. He worked with some of the most dangerous men. Having no other option to survive, they were forced to join him. They were mostly former murderers and criminals who, somehow, managed to escape to spend a lifetime in prison or get killed. It gave him even more inspiration to commit some of the most gruesome killings he ever did. Considering himself a killing artist, he would suggest the ugliest ways someone could die, and his gang would do them perfectly to make him happy. Then, they would take a picture and send him over. He would add them to the little collection he already compiled.

"The blond one needs to be properly punished…", he stated calmly while the smoke lingered in front of his face. "I suggest we do him 36…", he continued alluding to his most favourite killing scene.

His men would catch him, each on the one side of the man's body, while the third one strips the pants and cuts his penis off. Then, they would usually cut each finger off while the victim is screaming in pain and beg for mercy, and finally, they would tear his limbs apart, leaving him to bleed to death. His people smiled while nodding, looking forward to this one. He smiled and continued.

"The darker one…He is funny fellow… Let's give him 22…".

Some of them smiled again, and some just shut their mouths because this means that whoever does 22 will have to risk hand burns, and he would also inhale the horrible gut smell. It involved securing guy's corners of the lips to his ears to make him smile and showing his face in acid, which would burn his face. After, they would rip open his stomach and take his organs out, again leaving him to die like that, in agony. Concluding that Rocky was a great psychopath, no one could contradict him, and some of them actually enjoyed doing all of this.

“And the last one…Dominguez…He is one lost soul…what should he get…?”, he asked himself as one of his men added, cheerfully.

“Maybe 87?”

His boss thought it through and nodded with a small smile.

"And you will be the one who will do it."

The guy smiled and yelled- 'yes boss', feeling proud.

He almost immediately thought of this one, which included beating the person till he is worn out and then giving him a gun while holding his hand sturdy, making him shoot at his own head. This one was among the easier ones but overrated in Rocky's opinion, so he looked forward to the pictures. Smacking his palm on the desk, he smiled and spoke once again.

"You know the location. Tonight, after midnight…I want everyone else there shot at least four times. Be quick and make sure that they suffer. Oh, how I missed this…", he said, almost nostalgic, getting lost in his thoughts.

### (★★★)

Lara woke up that morning thinking of how to dodge meeting Rocky, so she thought about possible excuses.

 _‘He did not send me a picture yet, which means that maybe he bluffed…'_ , she thought as her phone ringed with a message.

She was afraid to take it, so she stared at it for a while.

“Aren’t you going to read the text?”, asked Sam who was already deep in a conversation with Dominguez.

Shaking her head, Lara sighed and shrugged with her shoulders at her friend, who already got her phone in her hand. She widened the eyes and buried her face closer in the phone before looking at Lara.

“What does it say?”, asked Lara slowly, also scared.

“The fun is about to start…”, whispered Sam back to her.

“What?”

"It says the fun is about to start, don't worry…", Sam answered again, a bit louder.

Her friend approached and took the phone from her hand. That text got them both worried.

"What he wanted to say? I am scared…", said Sam, concerned.

"I don't even want to find it out first…pack your things! We are moving to my apartment. I won't let him harm us…I need to go after him."

“WHAT? No please…He does not sound like a regular guy from what you have said about him…”, pleaded Lara’s friend while holding her hand in her palms.

"I need to, or otherwise he will find us first…We don't have much time, pack yourself…", she answered while moving briskly away from her.

Sam grabbed her head and sighed, feeling the old pain returning, once again. Suddenly the text appeared on her phone screen, and it was from Dominguez.

D: 'I will do anything to make you happy, Maria…'.

That was the moment when she realized that she was a catfish, but also a real person, whether her name was Maria or not, and that he could be the one who can help them out. The little spark of hope burned inside of her, and she calculated if he would do such a thing if he really developed some feelings for her. That idea stayed in her head for some time as she watched Lara run around the manor, shoving various stuff in her suitcase.

Finally, she wrote the short but meaningful message and clicked the send button.

M: ‘I need your help…’

** Visuals: **

** **

** Elena fighting with K **

** **

** R is going to pick up K and Elena **


	17. 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬

M: ‘I need your help…’.

The message stayed on the doctor's display for a while.

He watched it in confusion, neglecting the radio beeping. Finally, he turned it on, and Rourke spoke sarcastically to him.

‘Well, well, well… Is this our new game to turn off the radios for each other in the time of need?’

“Yeah…I guess so…”, said Pedro, while sighing loudly, his eyes still drifting towards the text.

‘Very funny, I’m dying. Now…I got Konstantin, but…The girl is gone.’

Furrowing his eyebrows, his gaze shifted to the radio.

“Elena? She is gone? How?”, said the doctor impatiently.

'I have no clue…I guess she is angry because…', he answered, and before he could finish, he let out a painful- 'ouch.'

“She is angry? What are you three, children?”

‘And you are our daddy…We are searching for her…Just wanted to let you know…Rourke out', said Rourke, and his radio went off.

Dominguez closed his eyes to calm himself a bit before returning to his phone. Deciding to trust his men on finding Elena, he returned to the more serious topic. Maria needed his help, and he did not even know what to do. One would not just text a random message like that out of the blue, so he thought she might be in serious trouble. The thought that he doesn't even know her occupied his head, and she demanded his help. His fingers quickly worked through the keyboard, and he managed to text her back at last.

D: ‘What's happening? Give me your number so I can call you.'

Sitting on the very edge of the desk, he touched his beard in anticipation as the tension rose.

The soldier snapped him back into reality.

"Umm…sir…She is still there…she is shaking and sweating from the fever...".

He jumped off the table as he realized that he completely forgot about the prisoner. Quickly moving towards her, he saw how worn out she looked. Going through his first aid kit, he didn't find anything useful that could help her.

“Bring Oscar, now…explain to him what’s going on”, he ordered to the same soldier, alluding to their doctor.

Shortly, he arrived, carrying a big white bag in his hand. Pushing his eyeglasses to his head clumsily, he looked at them, appalled.

"Why did you let this go for too long? She looks awful!", he said with his squeaky voice while unpacking various medicines and a couple of syringes.

Dominguez felt guilty, even though this was mainly Rourke's deed, so he blinked a couple of times as he put his arms on his hips.

"How bad it is?", asked Pedro while Oscar forced a couple of pills into Tina's mouth.

She looked like she was slowly responding, and Dominguez felt a couple of sweat drops forming on his forehead.

“Oh, you see it yourself…If you let her be for a while longer, I think her brain would be fried from the temperature…It is still a question if she will make it through this night…”, he answered quietly.

“Please do whatever it takes…We can’t afford to lose her now…”

"This means if she survives, someone should take care of her from now on…I see she has a very fragile immune system…and you were keeping her in the deadly cold cell for quite some time…"

Pedro's phone ringed, and he stiffly moved his hand to his pocket. The message appeared once again on the small screen.

M: 'The guy named Rocky is after my friend and me…he told us that the fun is about to start, and I wanted to ask you if you can send us some help…’

"…and you will give her this again two times, after five hours each time, got it?", spoke Oscar as he turned his head to Dominguez, who looked pale as hell, with his eyeballs almost popping off his lids. "Hey, you okay?", repeated the doctor, and Pedro blinked while turning around to leave the room, telling him to write the notes on the paper.

Oscar shook his head and noticed that several soldiers stood above his head, observing him and the girl, but mostly, the girl's fake boobs. He furrowed his brows and nose at the picture.

"Get out, you filthy dogs! I need to give her injection now!", he yelled, and they clumsily managed to walk out, bumping on each other a couple of times in a hurry.

### (★★★)

"Elenaaa, where are you…?", sang the dark commander as he observed the terrain.

His friend was leaned on the open window, holding his pulsating head. All he wished was to find her alive and well, and after what would happen, he didn’t care. Her words echoed on his mind on repeat. _‘And no, I am not in love with you! You are just another heartless bastard!’._

"Open your eyes, man...two pairs are better than one”, said Rourke to him while whistling lightly.

He forced them open and sighed.

"Has anyone ever told you how annoying you are?", asked Konstantin, still not paying attention to Jason.

A small chuckle escaped his mouth before he spoke, tapping his ally on the shoulder.

“You are the first one who told me this who will actually live after this statement, so congratulations.”

“What an achievement…”

"Of course, it is! Not anyone can be my buddy…".

They looked at each other, and Konstantin made a disgusted face at Rourke's smile.

“I am not your friend…”

“Hell yeah, you are, and I am taking you to strip club if we stay alive!"

“No.”

"Yeah, man, come on…"

"I said no and, stop with this."

"But why? You are lonely...I am lonely…it's the perfect opportunity to change those things!"

“I am not doing this…”, said the blond commander firmly.

"Fine, I will force you then!", yelled Rourke and earned, again, one of his friend's strange looks.

Observing his angry friend, Rourke noticed Elena walking in the distance on the other side of the car.

"Here she is…", he said, and Konstantin turned his head around abruptly. "HEY ELENA, WAIT!", shouted Rourke, and when she noticed them, she started to run. "Oh, no, no, don’t do that!”.

Jason sped up and quickly regained the distance leverage, but she was still trying to escape.

“Elena, stop this instant! This is an order!", yelled Konstantin, but she did not even turn around, so Rourke pulled over sharply, making them fly a bit from their seats.

He got out quickly and run after her. She was fast, but he was trained to run without a break for a long time, so when she started to lose her strength, he sped up.

"Hey, stop!", yelled Jason hoarsely, already losing his breath.

He got closer and reached his hand to grab her. When he managed to do this, he pulled her and secured her with both hands, stopping her on her track.

The chase was a strange scene for Konstantin. Rourke chasing her for a while, and she ending up in his arms made him even madder, but not only because of her escape but of himself for letting her go. His ally was taking her slowly to the van, holding her hands behind her back.

"Why are you running?", he asked Elena, trying to catch his breath desperately. Elena tried to free herself a couple of times, but he gripped her more tightly every time. "Easy! You clearly do not think about consequences…", said Jason, and soon enough, they reached the van.

Konstantin was already outside, holding the back doors open with one hand and throwing the finished smoke on the ground with the other. At that moment, they looked at each other, and the air around them filled with tension. Rourke rose his eyebrows in surprise but decided not to speak. His ally took her over, forcefully shoving her in the back seat and placing himself next to her before closing the door. Rourke rose his hands in the air as Konstantin snitched the door from his grip and loudly banged it close.

"Okay…", he said and decided to give them some time to talk. “I need to catch some air…Be right back”, said Jason and turned away, distancing himself from them.

Both of the people sat in silence at first, but then she reached again quickly for the door handle, and the blond commander pulled her back with his strong arms easily. Their eyes met once again, and she quickly glanced away.

“Should you try to escape once again, I will personally make sure that you got fired", he hissed in her ear.

It looked like she did not even pay attention to his threats. This bothered him too much. The front door opened, and Rourke got in, locking all doors.

"Phew, this was one tough marathon…hey, did you ever run one?", he asked Elena, but when he saw that the circumstances are not for his joking time, he nodded slightly with his head and started the car.

By his judging and mirror spying, one more person could sit between Konstantin and Elena. _‘They look like a couple in love that is fighting…’_ , he thought and remembered Tina in the process. His mood went down, and just when he grabbed the radio once again to ask Dominguez about her, the radio beeped.

“I just thought on calling you…”, said the commander before the doctor had a chance to speak.

‘Just shut up and listen…We might be in trouble…Konstantin do you copy me too?’, asked Pedro and he got closer to the radio in Rourke's hand.

“I hear you…what’s going on?”, asked Konstantin as he turned to ear.

‘I got an information that Rocky maybe cooks something for us…something ugly…’

Guys looked at each other, processing their leader’s words.

“He will attack the base?”, asked Rourke.

‘Most likely…and we need to be ready. Did you find the girl?’

"She is here with us…don't worry doc, we are on our way back."

'I see…we need to make a defence plan as soon as possible.'

“That son of the bitch…”, said Konstantin as he squeezed the leather on Rourke’s seat.

'He went after you, and now that you managed to escape, he wants us all dead.'

Rourke bit his lip and furrowed his brows.

“Doc, from who you got this information anyway?”

‘It is not important…’

“Well, maybe they are lying…”, continued Rourke.

'I doubt…She was telling me how he tried to kill someone yesterday, and he told them that it is not finished yet…'

"She?", asked Konstantin and Rourke covered his mouth, giggling a bit.

'Yes…and I trust her…Commander Rourke, what is so funny?', asked Pedro, visibly annoyed.

“Nothing doc…just the thing with you and girls…you, old, sly fox…”, he said through a small laugh.

'She's a friend, you moron. Now, don't waste time, hurry up and drive faster if you can…I'll wait for you in my office.'

“Alright, um, wait! I forgot to ask you about Tina…"

'She is…', he stopped and sighed. 'She is very sick. Oscar gave her a couple of meds and some shots…he said that it would be a miracle if she lives through the night…'

After those words, Jason felt the enormous urge to be next to her, so he unconsciously sped up again, and his face changed completely.

"Make sure she does, doctor, or otherwise, it will be nasty for you all", he said in half-whisper and got the attention of his companions in the van.

‘Did you just threatened me, you…', hissed doctor, but Rourke turned off the radio and nervously loosened the collar of his uniform.

“She will be fine…”, said Elena quietly, in the hope to comfort the driving man.

He looked her in the review-mirror to thank her and tapped the steering wheel once again, hoping to arrive at the base as soon as possible.

### (★★★)

“Oh no…I hope I packed the key…”, Lara said as she went through her backpack in panic.

They stood in the small gloomy street for a while, hidden from rain.

Leaned on the wall of the building, Sam thought about Dominguez. He said that he could send over two men to guard them as soon as possible to the address she gave him. Feeling horrible that she lied to Lara, she sighed. Her phone vibrated, notifying her that she got a message.

D: ‘My men are on the way…Stay safe and locked inside. They will be there soon, don't worry. How did you got involved with Rocky? Also, you said earlier that he tried to kill someone but failed. Do you know who is this person?'

"Ah-ah…we are lucky. I found it!", said her friend as she quickly unlocked the door and grabbed her luggage.

Sam nodded but not moved. She thought about how bad the idea was to let Pedro know about failed murder. Giving him the nearby address, she prayed to God that his men would only arrive and guard their street without searching for her. She feared that her identity would leak out, and also, Lara would be endangered.

M: ‘I don’t know him personally, but my friend does. And no…I have no idea… he was mentioning that he is after someone before, so I got scared.’

Her text was short, but she couldn’t say more either way.

“Hey, are you coming inside?”, asked Lara from inside.

"Yeah…", answered Sam and got in carrying her stuff.

Lara's apartment was more than cold and, in big chaos, so she shivered and rubbed her hands together.

"Jesus Christ Lara…here is like in the tomb…", she continued while blowing warm air in her hands.

"I know, it will need some time to warm up…Unfortunately, I use this old radiator…The building is pretty old…You can move to the sofa and cover yourself with a blanket. Did you lock the door behind you?"

### (★★★)

Pulling over, Rourke quickly unplugged the seat belt. He jumped off the seat, making his way quickly inside, forgetting to close the door behind.

Konstantin and Elena took their time as they looked after their friend. Slowly getting out, she found her commander already at her side of the van, waiting for her to jump off.

She furrowed her brows at him, and he returned, crossing his arms on his chest.

"I don't need your monitoring, sir... I am capable of getting out, on my own”, she answered with a small, ironic smile.

Grabbing her arm, he pulled her closer and leaned closer to her face.

"After the meeting, meet me in my office…we need to discuss this imaginary relationship further."

“Oh, I think we said everything to each other already, so I don’t see the point of this.”

"Just be there…and stop contradicting me all the time!", hissed the commander, and she started to leave without his approval, so he watched after her in disbelief.

"Come back, Elena, I did not finish yet!”, he yelled, but she just kept on walking, so he got angry and kicked the tier with his leg.

He hated that he had no power over her as he had with other people, so he cursed mentally. The strange pain sensation in his chest appeared again, and he touched his wound, remembering that he needs to see the base doctor. He did not really like Oscar because he was more of a woman than a man in his opinion, but regardless, he left to find him.

From Pedro's office could be heard the chaotic shouting. Two men were shouting at each other as others listened from the outside, scared for their lives too.

"SHE LOOKS LIKE SHE NEVER RECEIVES ANY HELP! I TOLD YOU TO TAKE CARE OF HER, YOU IDIOT! WHERE IS THAT GOODDAMN DOCTOR?! I AM GOING TO KILL HIM!", shouted Rourke while Dominguez was trying to hold him back from getting out and killing half of the base.

"WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR GUARDIAN HER WHILE I WAS AWAY, STEP OUT!", continued the angry man as two guards slowly entered the office with their heads down.

The commander reached for his pistol, and Dominguez grabbed his hand, preventing him from doing what he intended to do.

"GET OUT OF THE OFFICE, YOU MORONS", screamed the doctor, and they followed, obviously scared and guilty. "AND YOU CALM THE FUCK DOWN! SHE LOOKS BETTER THEN BEFORE! WHAT WILL YOU GAIN IF YOU KILL EVERYBODY, HUH?"

"I WILL START FROM YOU SCUMBAG IF YOU DON'T LET ME GO!"

"ROURKE! WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS? SHE IS JUST OUR HOSTAGE AND BAIT!".

That shook him to reality, and he opened his mouth slightly, softening his features.

Stepping back once, he got free of the doctor's hands and gulped, making his lump in his throat very visibly traveling up and down.

“She is not just a bait…she is human…like us…”, he said quietly.

Dominguez nodded his head and tapped his tensed shoulder.

"I know Jason…I know... those words were out of anger. Take her to your office and make sure she is recovering well…I promise you everything will be fine."

The poor commander nodded slowly as he turned his head to observe her. She has a high fever, and he couldn't tell if she understood what he was talking about or she just looked at them disconnected from reality.

On the other side of the base, Oscar examined Konstantin’s wound and his chest area carefully, putting a small pressure on those spots with his fingers.

“Do you feel pain here?”, he asked.

“No…”

“Then, I don’t see a problem. You don’t feel physical pain. However, it might be your muscle, but still, you denied this as well. When was the moment you felt the pain?", asked Oscar, sitting on the desk near the man, pushing his glasses further again.

Konstantin thought it through for a while and finally answered.

"Once when I was waiting for Rourke, and the second time just in front of the base.”

“When you screamed at Elena that you are not finished?”, asked the doctor, smiling with a corner of his mouth.

“Yes…how you know this?”

“You could be heard on the other side of the country, my friend.”

Konstantin bowed his head and blinked a couple of times, reviving the memories that moved him to the core.

“May I ask you something…she was with you when you were waiting for commander Rourke as well?”

“Y-yes…why?”

“Were you two fighting?”

“Why is this important?”

“Because it is for the conclusion of your condition”, said the doctor, now visibly smiling.

"She was disobeying me, and she walked away…What is this stupid smile on your face?", Konstantin asked, feeling how annoyed he is becoming.

Oscar got up and placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Then you might feel something deeper than a physical pain, my friend.”

"Wh-what do you mean?", asked the commander, finding himself shutter for the first time in his life.

He observed the doctor walking around the desk and sitting in his chair.

"You care about her…and you are hurt. I don't know the exact reasons, but it looks like that."

“NO, I DON’T CARE ABOUT HER! Is this your excuse because you are not qualified as a doctor, and you cannot tell me the right diagnose?", he said while getting up and leaning his hands on the desk, hovering above Oscar's head.

"If you mean on my diploma, I do get it…and I see no other explanation for the pain…Have you ever been in love?”, he continued and just when Konstantin wanted to grab his collar, Rourke cut them off.

“He wasn’t…”

They both looked at him, surprised.

He was leaning on the doorway with hands in his pockets and with a small smile.

“You eavesdrop now?”, asked his ally, and Jason got in, throwing the piece of paper on the doctor's table.

"I came to tell you to rewrite these instructions more clearly. I took over the recovery of our prisoner, and these scribblings look like hieroglyphics. Fix this", he ordered and pushed it closer to him.

Turning to Konstantin, he hit his back with a smile on his face.

"Why you never told me about this news? You got a thing for our sweet Elena?", he cheekily asked and grinned more widely. His ally looked like he is about to murder them both, but he turned away and left them to observe him. "Try talking to her, let it out... it helps!", yelled Rourke behind him.

### (★★★)

The heat was already spreading through the small apartment, and the girls sat there in silence, enjoying their tea. Shut window blinds only emphasized the weak light on the ceiling. Sam observed the surroundings and noticed many maps and clues on the walls from her friend's expeditions.

She noticed the Sun queen drawing, and it brought her back the ugly memories. This whole thing looked messed up, and she barely recovered from it, so she blinked away and asked Lara if she could maybe move those out from the sight.

“I am sorry, Sam…I totally forgot those are hanging there”, said Lara with a guilty facial expression as she ripped the pictures from the wall, putting them in the nearby drawer.

“I need to get some fresh air…I’ll be back in ten minutes…”, said Sam as she got up.

“Of course, be careful…”

“I will…”

Putting her jacket and boots on, she got out swiftly, making her mind to check if Pedro’s men arrived already. She walked in the middle of the lonely street, making sure that she spots them.

When she reached the end of the street, the black van made a turn and passed beside her. She saw two men in the front seats, and she assumed they were the ones she was searching for. They parked in the corner and spoke something between themselves, obviously checking their clothes for their guns.

The weight fell off her shoulders, and she felt like she could breathe again, but she felt unsafe being alone. If she returned this quickly, they could suspect that something is wrong since they saw her on their way in, so she turned around and decided to take a short walk.

Just a few buildings from her stood Abby, trying to manage the bags in her hands. Sam noticed her and called after her while waving madly like always. Abby raised her hand and turned to her. When they met, Sam hugged her and furrowed her brows.

"Those look heavy…do you need help?", she asked Abby which shook her head simply.

“Don’t worry about it…I am waiting for Jonah to pick me up…we got a new car.”

“Oh, that’s some great news, congrats!"

"Thanks…we decided that it will be better this way. But enough about us, how are you girls, and what are you doing here? I thought you are at the manor with Lara…"

“We moved today to her apartment…some things happened…”, said Sam as her expression became blank, but her eyes looked visibly sad.

“I hope nothing bad?”, asked Abby more quietly.

“Well…depending on how you look on things…some crazy guy wanted to kill the guy who attacked Lara in the manor before…"

“What?!”, she cut Sam as she got closer.

“Yeah…and now…we are there because he told us something strange that could be related to us…”

"Oh, I don't really follow this because it sounds too complicated…"

"I know, sorry, I am terrible at explaining…but don't worry…we have help. But don't tell Lara, please. She doesn't know about this."

"Okay, I won't…who is helping you?"

“Some guy I met on dating app…”

She continued to explain further but never noticed the man peeking behind the building. He listened to every word, and with every other word, his heart sank deeper in his stomach. The disappointment grew stronger as he realized that he was not talking with the tall, blonde Maria, but with the small, dark Asian girl. And she was pretty much familiar to him.

Turning around, he clenched his fists and walked away, feeling like someone cheated on him.

_'That's why you never gave me your number, huh?'_

**_Rourke eavesdrops Konstantin and Oscar_**


	18. 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Holidays everyone! 🎄

As Pedro walked the cold, gloomy streets, he nervously took a cigarette out of his pocket and lighted it with trembly hands. He made sure that he goes around to the spot where his men were, guarding his imaginary correspondent.

 _‘You idiot…’_ , he said to himself, feeling played.

Quickly storming towards his guards, he jumped in the van and ordered them to get in. They looked confused and obeyed, slowly approaching the enraged man. His face looked worried and angry at the same time. After a couple of minutes, he pulled out his phone and texted Maria.

D: ‘So, this is how you fool people, huh?’

Sam's phone vibrated, and she stopped in mid-sentence to take a look, visibly tensed.

“Is it from this guy you talked about?”, asked Abby, noticing Sam’s worried face.

“I uh...I got to go…I’m sorry…”, Sam managed to mumble before quickly turning around.

"Is everything okay?", yelled Abby behind her but got a simple yes in return.

Entering the street, she saw the same van, in the same place, but noticed no people outside. Hesitating to go further, she hid behind the wall and messaged Dominguez.

M: ‘What do you mean? I can’t see your people anymore…’

D: ‘They are here, so am I…Nishimura.’

When she read the text, she felt instantly nauseous and scared. The text appeared once again on her screen.

D: Come out, let's meet halfway, just you and me. We need to talk about this.'

Feeling her heart beating faster, she swallowed hard and peaked behind the building. She saw Dominguez already standing in the middle of the street, with his hands in his coat pockets. He looked like he was frowning and also pretty impatient, judging by his body language.

 _‘I screwed up everything…’_ , thought Sam as she bit her lip nervously.

M: ‘How can I trust you that you won’t hurt me?’

D: 'It would be gross to do something like that after everything we said to each other.'

Deciding that there would be no easier way to dodge this, Sam awkwardly stepped out and started to walk towards the doctor.

He followed closely, her every step, looking at her almost under his eyes. When she got close enough, she stopped and looked at the man she scammed in the eyes. He locked his arms on his chest and stayed quiet for a while.

"I'm sorry…", said Sam with a pretty quiet voice.

It was visible that she regrets this game, but Dominguez has to hear a lot more from her than that.

"Samantha…", he said, calmly, before continuing. "We followed Lara’s work for some time now, and it looks like I know about Yamatai, and you in general. Such a clever girl, and yet you did such a stupid thing. Was this satisfying to you? This whole show you put on?”

The girl was visibly scared of his unusual calmness, anticipating something horrible to happen every second.

“This was wrong…I admit…there is no excuse. Please just don’t hurt us…”, managed to say the poor girl, almost pleading.

Dominguez observed her for a couple of moments, without even blinking.

“Right now, we have more serious problems than you and Lara. She is with you?”, asked the doctor.

“No…”, lied Sam.

"So that means yes…", he concluded and nodded his head while pinching his nose.

 _'Konstantin fucked up…'_. The doctor thought about how he should not bring this to the guys to prevent the complications.

"Okay…I'll leave the guys here... to keep you safe. And…I am not doing this because of you or Lara. The situation is pretty messed up. Rocky is a dangerous person. You two could use some help anyway. Let’s forget the mess you and I made. This is above all the nonsense.”

She looked at him with eyes so wide that they would fall out any second. Scared of consequences after this situation pass, she hesitated to speak. It was more than generous from him to give her his men to keep them safe.

“But…aren’t you angry? This doesn’t make sense…”

“I am furious, but I have other things on my mind right now. For your own safety, stay hidden inside, with your friend, because I won’t be responsible if Konstantin comes again after you two. You have my word that this is not going further from my mouth.”

With those last words, Pedro sighed deeply and nodded to the girl, turning around to leave. Switching position with his men, he left them outside and drove off the van. The guys looked at Samantha, shrugging their shoulders slowly.

### (★★★)

“Is there something that hurts you?", asked Rourke as he sat next to the laying girl's body.

It looked like she was coming to her senses, so he took every opportunity to test it, asking random questions, and hoping for the best. The sight of the beautiful woman in his own bed made him blush slightly. Her tired eyes observed him.

"What happened to that statement: I don't care about you?", she asked slowly, barely rolling words on her tongue.

The commander looked away in embarrassment, resting his elbows to his knees.

“That was true…”, he lied, hoping that she won’t ask further.

"I am sorry for being a burden to you now…", said Tina slowly.

He felt bad for how he treated her and about how she feels, so he shook his head, not saying a word at first.

"I'm sorry you got sick because of me…", he said suddenly.

The girl chuckled and tried to move but unsuccessfully, falling again. Grabbing her slowly, Rourke helped her maintaining a half-sitting position as he put a pillow behind her back. Checking the time, he spoke again.

"It's medication time…"

She watched him as he moved through the room, searching for the pills. He was in his cargo pants and a thick green sweater. Each of his steps in the heavy boots echoed through the room. She remembered her father and how these people are after him.

 _'I can't forget that he is an enemy…'_ , she talked to herself when she would catch herself falling for him in every new second. The attraction was more than visible between them, and every time they would be close, the sexual tension would rise as well, which bothered them both.

Putting a couple of medicines in her mouth, he lightly brushed his fingertips on her lips and, barely visible, moved his hand backward. _'Collect yourself, you moron…this shouldn't distract you…'_ , he thought, observing her face.

She flinched as well at his touch and proceeded to drink the water he gave her. It was a hot minute since he touched a woman, and he realized it at that moment. The desire within him grew stronger with every new second as he tried to calm himself. Deciding to threaten himself with a random woman if he survives the night, he got up to leave for the meeting.

“I will return shortly; we have some emergency meeting.”

"Alright…I'll be waiting…", answered Tina, while smiling lightly.

That sentence made him think if he made the right decision to spend his time with other girls, so he got lost in his own thoughts on the way to the command room.

### (★★★)

Konstantin sat on the edge of his desk in his office. Caressing his lower lip with his thumb, he realized that Elena might not come after all. He was aware of how harsh he spoke to her after everything that happened the last night. Remembering the small details, from how her silky skin felt under his touch to her passionate gaze, he looked at the one spot for an hour. That was all still new to him, and he wondered if she even enjoyed it that much or she was faking everything out of fear. He also thought about where they were standing at this moment with each other. Were they lovers, or was it just a pleasure for one night that carried them both away? Many questions bothered his mind.

The light knock made him snap back to the present moment, and he cleared his throat and said a small 'yes?'. To his surprise, Rourke's head peaked through the door.

“Aren’t you coming?”

“Yes…I was about to go…”

“It doesn’t look like you were moving…”

The blond commander moved from the desk and made his way to his companion. Noticing that he was looking weird as well, he observed his face on the way there.

“What’s with you?”, asked Konstantin.

“Nothing…I am just tired of everything already.”

“How’s Tina?”

"She will be okay…Hey…if we survive the attack…would you join me for the night out?", he asked suddenly, and Konstantin blinked slowly, processing his question.

"Are you that desperate?", he asked Jason, who laughed nervously to mask his feelings.

“I just need some company, I guess…”.

His ally was surprised that he wanted him to keep him company after all the hate they had for each other, so he stayed quiet for some time.

“I thought you cared for our prisoner…”, added the blond commander.

"I do…but I am confused about what I feel", Jason said, and his companion frowned slightly.

“If it doesn’t include brothel or some sinful place, I will come with you.”

“Okay…I want pizza…after that comes brothel…if you don’t want to join me, I will understand.”

Konstantin smiled with a corner of his mouth and patted his ally on the back.

“You are never going to change, are you?”

“Trust me when I say that I’ve tried…”

They both laughed as they reached the command center.

The doctor already waited for them inside, sitting, and brooding.

“Gather around me…I made a plan”, said Pedro, putting a serious expression on.

### (★★★)

Men in an old facility were getting ready for the following night. There was a loud chatter between them about how they are excited to 'break some bones', the loud clanging of weapons along with some sounds of fallen bullets, hitting the ground. The atmosphere was beyond serious, and Rocky liked to see this scenery. He smiled widely, like a proud father watching his children play. The imaginary scent of fresh blood filled his nostrils, and he inhaled slowly. He could not risk being there with his men. Rocky was looking forward to their victory already. One of his people stood in front of him, waiting for approval to speak. When he nodded, he quickly spat out the words.

"Sir, you said there are women there…I was talking to the boys here…are we allowed to…", he stopped and made a squishing motion with his hands in the boob area.

Rocky smiled and shook his head.

“You have permission to take some with you here, but first, kill all men. They are the biggest threat.”

"Yes, sir! Thank you…", he said cheerfully and went off to announce the good news to his men, who reacted the same as him.

The mobile phone vibrated, and Rocky hurried to read the text. It was from Dominguez. He furrowed his eyes and opened the message.

D: ‘I thought we are partners, but this is really getting messy. You still have time to think and to quit this nonsense. We know what you are planning, and because you attacked my man, be sure that you will pay if you decide to show up, you coward.’

That text hit his nerve, and he bit his joint in half, spitting it on the ground. This guy has the nerve to talk to him like this. He realized that there is no other person than Lara that could tell them about this plan. Searching for her contact, he dialled her number.

### (★★★)

The lunch was passing by silently for Lara and Sam. Both girls sensed the tension but tried their best to make each other feel better.

"How was your walk?", asked Lara Sam, who looked lost since she got home.

“It was fine…I stumbled upon Abby…She was waiting for Jonah to pick her up. They got a new car.”

“Oh, that's nice…", answered Lara, while trying to hide her real feelings.

She was jaded even though she knew she needed to be happy for them. Her own mind messed with her after everything that happened. so she decided to keep talking about them neutrally before she sorts out her own thoughts.

“I thought you were going to be excited for them?”, asked Sam.

"I am…I am just not in element to talk about them…many things bother me."

“I can tell that…”

Lara's phone ringed, and she looked at it for a while. It said 'Rocky' on the screen, and she sighed.

“Don’t pick up!”, said Sam quickly, as she realized that she shouldn’t act so sketchy. “I mean…he has nothing good to say anyway…and we are having lunch…”, she added with an awkward smile.

“What if it is something important…?”, asked Lara, already holding the phone in her hands.

When she got no answer, she decided to pick up.

“Yes?”

‘I thought we have a special bond and connection, Lara…and you ruined it', said the man on the other side of the line, with his rusty voice.

Lara looked at her friend, frightened, and answered back slowly.

“What do you mean?”

'Doing all of this for you didn't meant anything, I see…You told our enemies about the attack!’, he roared through the speaker very loud, to the point where Sam could hear this from afar.

"I never spoke to them! What are you talking about?", said the frightened girl as her friend gave her a sad look.

'Don't play dumb, Lara. I won't tolerate this. After I finish with them, I am coming for you.'

Rocky hanged up, leaving them puzzled. Inside, Sam was panicking, and she started to feel bad. A couple of tears rolled from her eyes down her cheeks, and Lara took her hand.

"Don't cry, he could be bluffing, and we are safe here…he could never find us."

Sam hesitated and looked towards the shuttled window before speaking.

"Unless he kills them and takes Pedro's phone…"

Her friend slowly placed her phone on the table.

“What do you mean?”

### (★★★)

“So, to conclude, secure all the areas and doors. Also, spread-out tactical teams in every area, Rourke, you lead the alpha team and you Konstantin lead others, this guy cannot win this”, spoke Pedro to the commanders. “And stay on the line, is that clear?", he asked, and both of them nodded.

They looked at each other for a while, just sitting in the circle, and the doctor spoke again to them.

“I have one more serious topic to talk about with you two.”

“What is it?”, asked Rourke, breaking the silence.

Dominguez sighed and looked at them both.

“You two know already that I am looking at you as my own sons…”

Rourke chuckled and pointed his index finger to him in answer.

“Told you, you are our daddy…”, he joked and made Konstantin chuckle as well.

“But without a joke now…You two are getting old…”, continued Pedro and they furrowed their brows at his words.

“I’m still feeling young…”, added Rourke with a playful grin on his face.

"I can see that Jason…And I fear that this what I am about to tell you will not make you too happy."

“Well, bring it on!”

"You two need to get settled soon…Have you thought about marriage? To find someone and have children, live a happy, calm life…have you two ever thought about this?", he said calmly, with a parental tone in his voice.

Both commanders looked at him in surprise and stayed quiet for a while. He saw fear in both of their eyes, but both with a different reason.

"We will be done with this once and for all in less than a year, hopefully, and after that, I want to see you both happy and successful in life."

“Now you are talking like you are our real dad…”, added Rourke while squishing his knees nervously.

"I care about you two! You can't let life pass by like that."

The tension grows stronger between them all slowly as the doctor approached behind two sitting men and kneeled to put his hands around each one's shoulders.

“Konstantin, what do you think about this?”

“I…don’t really think anything…”

"He needs to cure his depression first", added Rourke, and Dominguez hit his back in disapproval, squishing his shoulder tightly.

"And Rourke needs to cure the sexual urge that is hitting him too hard so he could care about one woman for the rest of his life", said Konstantin as his ally looked at him like he wants to murder him.

"At least I have some urgency! I am not asexual as he is…"

“Who the fuck tells me! You are not better ether!", shouted the blond commander back.

"I am telling you! If you fucked something, you would be much happier in your life!", yelled Rourke back, leaning closer to his ally, who tried to get up, but Pedro pulled him back down.

"Enough already! I have never seen such a hateful friendship in my life! How you two even function together on the field?"

"We don't. He is an asshole.", said Konstantin calmly.

"We don't because he thinks he is better than everyone else around him!", added Rourke, shooting him a venomous look.

"We don't because this idiot calls us king one and two in a serious situation!"

"Yeah, I take back this! You do not deserve to be called like that!"

“And you deserve to eat this pizza alone!”, shouted back Konstantin.

"I will, for fuck sake, and after that, I am going to get laid while you cry for some girl who does not even see you!".

Konstantin got up and took Rourke's collar tightly, pulling him closer to his face.

“You know nothing, you scumbag! And don’t put her in your dirty mouth, ever again!”, yelled the commander in Rourke’s face.

"CALM DOWN!", shouted Pedro, forcefully separating them. "YOU NEED TO WORK TOGETHER, NOT AGAINST EACH OTHER! I AM REPEATING MYSELF EVERY DAMN TIME!"

They both bowed their heads while saying to the doctor their short apologies.

He hugged them both after some time, again, and spoke.

"You two are such a big pain in the ass, but I consider you my family. Jason…you need to calm down a bit with women. Pick one you like, and start something serious with her. Konstantin, I know you don’t plan such a thing, but please, just consider it…The biggest curse in life is to ride it alone till the end.”

Nodding slowly, both of them stayed quiet, deep in their thoughts.

“Do we have a deal?”

“I still need to visit the brothel.”

“Rourke…”

“What? I haven’t found anyone yet…until then…I cannot ditch my desires away.”

The doctor shook his head and freed them from his grip.

“Do whatever you please, but consider what I just said to you and Konstantin.”

“Sure thing, doc…”, answered Rourke as he turned to walk away.

Konstantin stayed a bit longer there.

"What about girls?", he asked Pedro.

"They already followed the instructions. We are waiting for you two to sort out our men."

Nodding to the doctor's words, he turned as well to leave. Stopping in the doorway, he turned around and spoke calmly.

"They stand no chance against us."

**Visuals**

****

**Dominguez waiting for Sam**

****

**Tina sleeping in Rourke's bed**

****

**Sam listening to Lara's conversation with Rocky**

****

**Rourke when Pedro told him to settle down**


	19. 𝐓𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝

Time flew by very fast as they prepared themselves for defence. Most men were excited and ready to come back for a real deal. The adrenalin rose within them as they charged the weapons.

"How are you feeling?", asked Rourke to Konstantin.

He seemed deep in his thoughts. Putting a gun holster around his thigh, he sharply tightened it and stomped on the floor to get the circulation going.

“Not very different.”

“Do you ever feel something different? I mean, it looks like you don’t care about the outcome.”

“I already died once. I worry about our people.”

Rourke remembered how his ally barely survived the last big battle, as he was hanging on the edge on his life.

“How does it feel? To be dead?”

There was an uncomfortable silence as Rourke anticipated the answer.

"It felt like I was floating over my body, watching the doctors doing an operation. It was peaceful."

The other commander blinked and swallowed his saliva, processing what he just heard.

“What made you stay?”

"Well performed operation. Otherwise, I would never bother to continue with my life."

“What if you met Elena before that? Would you be bothered then?”, he asked while elbowing him playfully. Konstantin gave him a weird look and shook his head. “Ah-ah! I knew it!”

“You know nothing.”

“Oh, I know, trust me. When the right one appears, usually the dude loses his words. And you would do anything to protect her. Keep her close today, just in case. You never know.”

The blond commander listened to his ally with a lost expression on his face. It never crossed his mind that she would appear out of nowhere and make him feel like he cared. Did he care? It was a hard question that remained unresolved.

"Are you ready, boys?", asked Tanya slowly approaching them. She shoots Rourke a really sly, nasty look, and he furrowed his brows. "How are you feeling, Commander?", she asked Konstantin which remained silent as well.

“We are ready. What about you?”, answered Rourke as he swirled his gun around his finger.

She rose her eyebrows, and a small chuckle escaped her mouth.

"I am sorry, commander Rourke, I never asked you a question."

Both of them looked at her like she has lost her mind.

"Tanya, come here, darling!", called commander Olga as they all stood in a circle.

She flew to them in a hurry, and Konstantin caught Elena's eyes once again. She bit her lip and looked away.

After they finished their talk, he walked to her and ordered her to follow him. She obeyed, visibly confused, and he led her to the empty hallway. When they stopped, he looked at her eyes for a couple of seconds and leaned to kiss her, but unsuccessfully. Before he could do it, she turned her head around, making him stop in front of her cheek.

“I don’t feel like this is appropriate”, answered Elena softly.

The commander remained silent but continued his kiss and placed it to the cheek anyway.

“Stay by my side today…It could be dangerous.”

“I have to obey my own commander’s order.”

"I am your commander as well…", he said, slightly raising his voice, and when he caught himself, he closed his eyes to calm down.

"Commander... who just tried to kiss me?"

“I don’t want to fight with you…”

"You confuse me! One moment you are my commander, and the other, you are acting like you have feelings for me…what is going on?"

Elena looked like she was on the edge of her patience, so he pressed his lips together and brought his hand to his face.

“Give me more time.”

“For what?”

“Just give me more time. Please.”

The last sentences made her feel strange. It was the first time that he actually was soft with her. They observed one another for a little while, and he cupped her chin, speaking once again.

“Stay by my side as much as you can. I’ll cover you.”

With that, he left to take his position as he ordered on the radio to the teams he was leading to spread out.

Rourke decided to check on Tina before Rocky's people enter, so he walked towards his office faster than usual.

"Commander! May I speak with you?", called a girl voice behind him, so he slowed down gradually before breathing in heavily.

 _‘Not you again…’_ , he thought.

“I was wondering how is our prisoner doing?", asked Tanya, now visibly closer.

Turning around, he put a really fake smile on and nodded his head.

“She will be fine. Why is this your concern?”

"I was just asking since she was situated in your office. I guess you two have a really close connection because of that?"

"No, we don't, and even If we had, who are you to judge and ask?"

"Nobody important, since you threw me out of the room the other day."

“Exactly.”

“That’s rude.”

"Oh, really? You came to ask for sex if my memory serves me. And this is not rude?"

“I came to share sweets with you, and besides, it was only a joke. I would never touch someone arrogant like you are…sir.”

“Good, then don’t and stop following me around. And this is an order.”

Since he stood barely next to his office door, Tina could hear the whole conversation. It brought a small smile to her lips.

_‘You were lying to me…’_

Entering the room, he changed his facial expression from an angry one to a concerned one really quickly. As she noticed that he had various weapons on his uniform, she widened her eyes and opened her mouth to speak.

“It’s noting major, don’t be scared. You will be safe here. I will lock you before going out.”

“But what’s going on? Did you found my father?”, she panicked, trying to get up.

Slowly grabbing her, he put her down.

"Don't worry... it is not related to your father."

“Are you saying this to make me feel better?”

“No, it’s the other guy. He made a wish to die apparently.”

She calmed a bit, but the concern was still visible on her face. When she calmed down, she realized that he was wearing some perfume.

“Did you decided to smell good today for no reason?”

“I do this every time I need to kill someone. It makes me feel calmer. Pretty important for leaders.”

“I see…That’s a strange strategy.”

“At least I don’t miss a shot.”

They both smiled a bit, and he glared over his watch again. Grabbing some pills, he poured some water into a glass and sat next to her. Starring at each other as he was giving her water, she gathered the courage to speak.

“You were lying to me…”

"What do you mean?", he asked, genuinely confused.

“She is not your wife.”

Rolling his eyes, he chuckled.

“Oh, here we go again.”

“I mean…it does not matter to me; I was just stating that you were lying…”

Rourke noticed a pinch of blush in her cheeks and how she was trying to look away.

 _‘Damn…you look good even when you are deadly ill…’_ , he thought while caressing his lips with his thumb.

"What's up?", interrupted Tina.

“I wish I met you under different circumstances.”

Locking their eyes once again, she remained speechless with a slightly blushed face, and the commander continued to caress and bite his lip until his radio cracked with a signal.

“Sir, we are in positions. Our scout noticed them driving towards us. There are four regular trucks.”

"I am on my way, over."

Jason got up and touched the girl's hair with his rough hands.

"Don't be scared... you will be locked and safe. We will finish in no time."

Tina returned with a sad smile, enjoying every moment of his touch.

“Be careful…”

### (★★★)

It was past midnight, and Rocky's people drove fast through the empty London streets. The first snow started to fall upon the town, and everything became white instantly. Singing and discussing the strategies, they hoped that they would take them down all.

"And girls…Oh, I bet there is one for each one of us. I can't remember how their skin felt like…", said one of them in the back of the truck, closing his eyes while imagining.

Others laughed at him, and the other one replied.

"You never touched a woman, you idiot, so how would you know?"

The laughter spread pretty fast to the front part, and the driver laughed harder than them all. His laugh sounded like a mixture of a sad clown and a pig.

“That’s not true!”, protested the guy.

“It is…the only woman you touched was when you hugged your mother…”, teased the same one again.

“Very funny….”, said the poor guy, feeling like a mocking theme.

“They are pretty optimistic today, sir”, said the driver to their leader.

Rocky decided to join them since Dominguez stepped on his nerve. Making that decision was not easy cause it was a while since he was doing dirty jobs himself. He wanted to look him in the eyes when he suffers. Smiling and biting a mint leaf, he nodded his head.

“I want us to succeed today. There is no place for loss or surrender.”

“Sir…Are you positive that you want to be with us on the field?”

“Yes…I want to watch them all die…burn…scream in pain.”

“Sounds fun…”, returned the driver.

“Make sure that it goes like this.”

### (★★★)

Taking his position, Rourke placed his sniper on the highest point reachable inside the base. Moving it to take the best point possible on the floor, he listened to some classical music which played on an earbud in one of his ears. The soothing sound of the piano always made him more focused. He tapped his weapon with his fingers in a rhythm.

“Are you in position?”, said Dominguez through the radio.

“Yup, captain”, he replied while observing the surrounding through the sight.

“Konstantin?”, asked Dominguez again.

He was already hiding behind the old metal pipes on the first floor.

“I’m on position.”

“Good…May God help us, and stay alive people”, said Pedro with a voice full of hope.

“Same, doc. Konstantin, please postpone desire to die for another day.”

“I can’t promise anything.”

"You can promise me now. If you don't, I will be thinking of you the whole time and probably miss the targets."

“Fine…”

"Okay, then let's see what those morons have in their empty sleeves", said Rourke while loudly loading the magazine.

After some time, the trucks arrived a little further from the base, and the scout came back inside, running.

"They arrived!", he said to the commanders on the radio, and they ordered their teams to prepare themselves.

The only way dealers' people could enter was from the main entrance, so they surrounded the area, hiding. More than 15 minutes passed by, and no one showed up.

"Doc, what If they plan to detonate us?", whispered Jason on the radio.

"They won't. Rocky likes to torture people. Did you forgot the story I told you before?"

“Oh yes…I forgot.”

"The music from your earbuds overtook the radio…", said Konstantin, and Rourke's laughed.

“That’s it! You are genius!”, said Dominguez and got off the line.

“What’s wrong with him?”

“I have no idea…”

The soft music started to play suddenly through their loudspeakers on walls.

“Doc, what the fuck?”, asked Rourke furrowing his brows and crossing his eyes with Konstantin below him.

“I felt like they would see through our plan if it was too quiet.”

“So, you decided to play Mozart in the dark?”

"Why not? It's sleep time, and they have no idea if we do this or not."

“That’s a weird idea…”, answered Konstantin.

“Yeah, just trust me.”

The doors opened forcefully, and two ripped and muscular men entered. They lit up the area while quickly moving and checking around.

'Clear', said one of them, and more filled inside. It looked like there was no end to them. They spawned too quickly, and guys felt the adrenalin rush.

"Stay on positions…remember the plan", whispered Pedro, who was monitoring everything from the main office.

When it looked like they all got inside, Konstantin gave an affirmation to Rourke. Rourke sighed slowly as the beautiful melody filled his ears.

"Alpha, on the count of three, turn on the lights and open fire", he ordered, barely above a whisper.

"Rocky is here", said Konstantin as he recognized the biggest man's figure.

His joint glowed in the dark alongside other laser signs.

"Fucker…stay calm, we will take him down", answered Rourke.

At that moment, Konstantin saw him, and he felt his hands tremble from the rage as he remembered the encounter with his assassin that night in the hotel.

"Get ready, all the teams", he continued to speak to his teams as he tried to calm his hands that were already bleeding in the stigmata places from the gripping pressure.

“On the three…one, two…three!”, said Rourke and the bright lights showered the room, blinding their opponents.

A couple of gas bombs flew towards Rocky's crew, and the area became foggy as the poor people shot everywhere. Rourke's people, which were on the second floor, opened the fire, and Konstantin's entered the area, emerging with the enemy. Russian commanders also ordered the ladies to open fire, and everything became pretty morbid at the moment. The sound of nonstop bullet firing and the soft piano made everyone feel like they were in the movie, except the real dead people, and the blood were all over the floor. One of Rourke's people got shot in the head, and he fell from the small metal fence to the first floor, barely missing Konstantin's head.

"NO! Fucking Hell, where are you?", yelled Rourke as he searched the guy who shot his soldier. The guy was barely visible in the foggy room, so the commander took some time to find him. "You BASTARD!", he yelled and shot the guy in his chest a couple of times, feeling unable to stop.

He would always feel bad when his people get shot, so his revengeful side would take over him.

Konstantin stayed behind, taking the targets with ease. His spot was barely approachable, and his weapon barrel was the only thing that could be seen. Most of the time, he was following Elena's actions and covered her, and to her surprise, a couple of times, he actually saved her from being taken down. She would also give him a couple of short thankful looks from her hiding spot a bit further from his. He searched for Rocky with the magnifier on riffle but never found him.

"Where is Rocky?!”, he asked Rourke on the radio, who yelled on his soldiers all the time, obviously pissed about losing his man.

"I don't see him, keep on looking cause he cannot escape!", he said angrily.

"We almost got them all, so keep your eyes open!", said Dominguez through the radio.

Horrifying, painful screams and curses flew through the air as the bullets destroyed half of the entrance. Their door was filled with holes, even though they were made from durable material.

"Couple more, teams head up!", ordered Konstantin to his men, who already started to lose strength. They dragged their heavy boots across the floor, slowly responding to new events happening around them. “Just a couple more, don’t give up!”, he encouraged them while desperately trying to find their boss.

By the time the last one was killed, the room cleared from the smoke. They could clearly see that there were a lot of dead ones on the floor. Men and women. They wanted to participate in a field fight, and Dominguez was against it at first, but the Russian ladies insisted, saying how it would hurt their ego if they don't even try. Resting his head on his sniper, Rourke relaxed his muscles while lying on the floor.

"We did it!", said Pedro, visibly excited. The music stopped, and the happy chatter filled the room.

"Everyone stays on your positions until we find Rocky! He is not here...", said Konstantin to all of them as he checked a horde of dead bodies.

A small and slow clap filled the room, and they all aimed towards the sound. Konstantin stood in the middle, aiming towards the dark corridor. Rocky got out of the shadows, pushing Elena in front of him. He placed his gun on her head as the scared girl cried.

“Bravo…what a show. Wow, I really congratulate you all on an excellent performance!”, said the weapon dealer, spreading his mouth in a big, evil grin.

"Leave her alone, Rocky! She is not your enemy! Your men are dead, and you won't get out of here that easy!", said the blond commander as he stood his ground.

His arms trembled, and the only thing that was on his mind is how he wants to rip his limbs apart from even touching Elena.

"Well hello, blondie! I thought you would look after her better…I thought it would be appropriate if I take her in exchange for my man’s life you’ve ended that night. Remember?”

"YOU ARE SURROUNDED, DROP THE GUN!", yelled Konstantin again, as the drop of sweat formed on his forehead.

He was looking the guy in his eyes, like a lion protecting his territory.

“What’s wrong, blondie? Are you scared for your girl’s life?”, he asked mockingly as the Russian commanders cursed in Russian in the distance. ‘ Блять!’

"She is one beautiful lady. I agree with you…", continued Rocky, while burring his nose in her hair.

The disgust in her face said it all, and he couldn't take it anymore, so he stepped forward and shot the wall just right next to his face.

"How dare you?", asked Konstantin with a dangerously low voice as his enraged face looked darker than usual. "I told you before that you will be dead. Release her, and let's resolve this as two grown men! Just you and I!"

Rocky laughed at his proposition and shook his head.

"You are not in a position to speak like this. Tell me, what should I do to her, huh? Should I fuck her first or punish her? Or I should maybe make you watch as well?", he spoke as he felt the barrel on the back of his head. His jaw clanged, and he furrowed his brows.

“Your time is up. Release her”, said Dominguez, standing behind him.

“About time!”, said Rourke from his spot.

"RELEASE HER!", growled Konstantin and the guy jumped a bit before pushing Elena, which fell on the ground.

Tanya took her in her arms, and they moved slowly towards the hiding area.

Moving slowly towards him, Konstantin stood in front of him and took the gun out of his hand, throwing it as far as possible.

“He’s yours”, said the doctor as he lowered the gun.

"Look, your wish came true! Come on, show me what you got!", provoked Rocky as they were dangerously close.

Smacking Rocky’s head with a back part of his sniper, he sent him to the ground. He wiped the blood off his mouth and nose as the commander jumped on his chest, hitting his face as hard as possible with his fists. The guy laughed through the whole process, and as he was becoming bloodier, the laughs were dying down. Everyone looked at the scene in shock. Suddenly, Rocky pulled out the small knife from his pocket, and before Konstantin could react, he stabbed him just below his bulletproof vest in his lower stomach. He twisted it inside his flesh deeply as the commander looked at him with wide eyes. Pulling forcefully from the dealer, he fell to the ground as Pedro ran towards him.

“Konstantin!”, he yelled in the process.

"Don't get closer!", he yelled at the doctor as he got on his feet.

Pulling out forcefully the knife, his blood poured out of the wound like a fountain.

“NO!”, yelled Elena as she was trying to get away from others who were securing her from running towards him.

Konstantin held the same knife in his hand and sat again on Rocky's chest. The idiot was laughing victoriously, and at that moment, the commander took him by his jaw and cut his thought. The agonizing voice of the dealer turned out to blood bubbling as it filled his insides. Before he let his last breath, Konstantin leaned forward and yelled at him.

“It would take more than a knife to end me, fuckhead, but this is your end! And it will be more painful than being in Hell!”

Then, getting up, he took his sniper and holed the hell out of him, as the blood poured everywhere. Dominguez held his arms to calm him down as he fell on one knee because he felt weak from the blood loss.

“SOMEONE CALL OSCAR, NOW!”, yelled Pedro. “Don’t worry, we will pull you out of this…Stay with me, don’t pass out!”

**Visuals**

****

**Dominguez supervise the operation**

****

**Rourke when he lost his soldier**

**Elena**

****

** Konstantin ** **aiming at Rocky**

****

**Rocky's knife**


	20. 𝐖𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬

"Put him here!", ordered Oscar as two soldiers laid Konstantin on the wide, white bed in the emergency room.

The commander let a painful growl and tensed his facial muscles. His body was covered in Rocky's blood, sending them a worse image than it was. Elena stood near him as Tanya held her shoulders. Tears fell from her eyes, and she sniffed uncontrollably, drawing almost all attention to her.

Rourke scanned the crying girl, feeling bad for her. Then, his eyes met Tanya's, and he looked away to avoid getting tensed.

"Someone should give him the blood, anyone universal?", asked Oscar again in a concerned voice, already sewing his wound.

"I'm the universal type, but for God's sake, Oscar, why didn't you give him some sedatives before doing this?", Jason asked and made a disgusted face. Konstantin looked like he did not feel the pain, which made him more concerned. "Hey, you okay?"

"I'm fine…", said Konstantin, with a barely heard voice.

“Prepare commander Rourke for blood transplantation, now!”, said Dominguez to a couple of recruits, who looked like they have no idea how to do it. Oscar shook his head.

"They don't know what to do, Pedro…", he corrected the doctor and continued. "Rourke, go sit on the high chair near the window, just next to this big metal stick.”

Nodding, he obeyed and proceeded to take off the heavy vest and uniform from his upper body. As he did this, he noticed a couple of girls staring at him, including Tanya, so he furrowed his brows and raised his voice.

“Who let recruits here?! Everyone gets out, except Pedro! And Elena. You are my future sister-in-law.”

Saying these last words calmer, the girl blushed, and he heard his wounded ally murmuring 'don't shit' slowly, so he smiled on a whole scene he stirred up.

They got out one by one, men and women. Dragging her feet, Elena’s friend also left with an unsatisfying facial expression.

“I’ll be here with you in a minute…”

Running around, Oscar washed his hands and approached Rourke, taking an empty plastic blood bag to attach the small needle to it. Slowly placing it inside his vein, he sighed and whipped the access sweat off his head. He was an older man and his time for action passed a long time ago, so he found this exhausting. Gently squeezing his fist, Jason forced the blood to pour faster.

"Don't do this too fast... I don't want you to faint."

### (★★★)

Tanya sat on the small chair in her own office as she felt the embarrassment overwhelm her.

 _'Who the fuck he thinks he is, putting himself on the throne above us?_ ', she thought about Rourke as she cracked her fingers nervously.

This habit of hers was annoying to many people, and she couldn't stop it since it was a form of relaxation for her mind.

 _'Wonder what he has with the prisoner girl…'_. Chatting with his recruits from time to time, she realized that he likes girls way too much. Thinking of that, she also concluded that something changed in him since the day that girl arrived. _'That slut…_ '.

Picking herself up, she marched out of the office and made her way towards Rourke’s office.

 _‘Let’s see what she has to say…’_.

Standing in front of the office, Tanya leaned her ear on the wooden doors to pick up any sound from the girl. There was nothing to be heard. Surprisingly, the doors were unlocked, ready for her to enter.

_'When he had time to see her already?'_

As she got in, a smile that was plastered on the girl's face from ear to ear disappeared, and she furrowed eyebrows in disbelief.

“Not what you expected, I guess?”, said Tanya, crossing her arms on her cheats.

"Rourke sent you?", asked Tina while swallowing hard.

Hesitating, she put a fake smile on and nodded to the girl, deciding to turn the situation in her favour.

“You mean my boyfriend sent me? Yes.”

Swallowing the upcoming tears, Tina blinked them away and squished the sheets.

"You are lying. Rourke admitted that he has no interactions with you whatsoever."

“Yes, he did, so you don’t stress and recover faster”, continued Tanya, getting closer to the girl. “And truth to be told, I don’t like the fact he put you in the bed we made love on.”

Not believing the level of pettiness she just received from Tanya, Tina felt hot tears on her cheeks. Seeing this, the Russian girl made a concerned expression and cupped her chin, wiping a couple of tears off with her small thumb.

“Oh, what's wrong, honey? I destroyed the perfect picture you had in your pretty head? Did you thought that he would replace me with you?", continued Tanya and sighed, observing the girl's features. Too much plastic, but she looked good with all that plastic in her face. "I mean, I understand you. Jason is one hot man, so I am not jealous or concerned at all. Anyone would love to have him for themselve. I am one lucky girl, I guess."

Finishing her small and calm speech, she got up and shot another fake sweet smile towards the crying prisoner girl.

“I don’t want your man”, answered Tina, but her face said the very opposite thing.

“Please…like you can have him. He is already madly in love with me.”

"I heard him speaking to you before…It looked like he does not love you, as you claim."

"Couples fight sometimes, you know…", said Tanya as she leaned a bit, making her point stronger. "I'll leave you now. I was supposed to check on you."

"He was here after the fire died down to check on me..."

"I know honey, everything… when he breaths, where he moves, what he is talking with you…everything. So, don't think you can tutor me about my lover."

Turning around, she stopped at the doorway and faced the other girl, once again. Blowing a small kiss towards her, she left. When Tina remained alone, she broke into crying. She did not believe what a fool she was, thinking there was something in his eyes that gave her hope.

_'No, what am I even thinking! These people want to kill my father…'_

Making up her mind to escape as soon as possible, she waited for the right moment, when everyone went for lunch, including two guards in front of the office. Taking a bobby pin out of her messy hair, which she was thankful that she has and no one noticed, she lightly tried to unlock the door. Stopping a couple of times as she heard some soldiers passing by, she froze and waited until she was alone again. Soon enough, she managed to get out, and looked around very carefully.

_'Thank you, Dad, for teaching me this.'_

Tina moved slowly, trying to remember the way to the main entrance. She finally stepped outside, on the cold and muddy ground, and sprinted towards the opposite side.

_'Just don't trip over something…'._

When she reached the road, she let out a relieving sigh and waved with her hand to stop any incoming taxi. _'Come on!_ ', she thought as most of them passed her since she looked like a local hooker with her provocative nightgown and messy hair.

“You look bad! Is everything okay?”, asked the taxi driver that pulled over, scanning her from head to toe.

"Thank God someone stopped…Please, just drive…", said Tina as she jumped in the backseat in a hurry.

The man did what she said, and soon, they left for her house.

### (★★★)

M: 'Dominguez, your men just left. Is everything okay?'

Sam and Lara spent their time locked in the small apartment. Having over Abby and Jonah helped them not to think about everything that was going on. No one knew about Pedro's men since they were gone sooner than Sam expected. She bit her lip, making a concerned face, as her friends chatted with each other. Lost in her thoughts, Sam met Abby's eyes. Abby was the only one who knew about this, so she grabbed her phone and texted Sam, not wanting to get her exposed.

Abby: 'What’s wrong, you look pale and frightened?'

Sam: 'They left. The people that were supposed to protect us.'

At this moment, a message from Dominguez appeared on her screen.

D: 'We handled the situation. Rocky is not going to bother you two anymore.'

“Hey, Sam…you never told me…Is Rocky after Trinity?”, asked Lara, remembering their previous conversation that was left unfinished.

Her friend slowly shifted in her seat and looked away.

“Yes, Pedro told me when we were chatting before.”

"Why do I feel there is more to it than what you are telling me?", asked Lara again, making the rest of them look at the poor girl.

“There is nothing more…I just received the text from him that they handled it…”

"Wait, you are still talking to him? Sam! That could expose our location!"

"I promise it won't…I didn't give them the address, don't worry. I don't know if we can trust Dominguez, though. Maybe they want to trick us."

Listening to their conversation, Abby cleared her throat, feeling that it could go further and her boyfriend and she could get involved in dirty business.

"Anyways…Thanks for having us today. Girls, please be careful, at least for some time. Call us anytime if you need anything. We would need to go now because we have some things to do…”

Elbowing Jonah lightly, he agreed, and they left. When girls remained alone, once again, Lara turned to Sam and grabbed her shoulders to make her look at her eyes.

“Sam, please tell me the truth…”, she pleaded.

Her words hit the girl with guilt, but she managed to collect herself, knowing that Lara would go nuts if she knew Pedro was there with his people.

"I told you everything I know, Lara…there is nothing more."

“So, I can trust you?”

"Absolutely…", said Sam, gulping her saliva in the process.

That little gesture didn't went unnoticed to Lara, but she nodded her head, knowing that her friend is lying. At that moment, she decided to visit Rocky as soon as night enrols and everyone falls asleep.

### (★★★)

Holding Konstantin’s hand, Elena was sitting next to his bed, watching him intensely. He looked so peaceful when he was sleeping. Maybe the calmest ever from how she knew him. The blood that Rourke donated was already transplanting to the blond commander’s body. Remembering how angry he was when Rocky held her hostage, Elena smiled and stroked his cheek slowly. Feeling his scar under her fingertips, she discovered that it was deeper than she thought. Knowing that she never had a chance to touch him this intimately before, she took every moment for herself.

 _'You are such a hard person to deal with…'_.

The commander flinched as he woke up, and she drawed back her hands as he looked at her.

"Elena…", he said in a weak voice, acknowledging her presence.

Her lips curled in a small smile, and she reached for his hand again, but he yanked it before she could do it, shooting her one of his tough looks.

"We are not supposed to do this here... someone could walk in."

"I know…I am sorry…", she answered and added the small 'sir' since she forgot it recently more than not.

Rourke let a faint laugh from his transplanting bed and shook his head.

“You two are one tragic comedy.”

"Sir…", said Elena as she got up and turned to greet him in military way. She thought he was asleep, but he was very much awake.

“No need to get up, sit down, my friend needs you…”

"I don't need anyone…I can recover on my own", said the blond commander, and Rourke answered in a very amused tone.

“Mhm…Man, drop that guard, we are all aware she is your wife already.”

The girl blushed and blinked away as Konstantin stayed silent. Rourke could see that he wanted to tell him a lot but just had no energy to do so. The tensed exchange of stares was interrupted by heated Dominguez, who flew inside. Trying to catch his breath, he finally spoke.

“She is gone…the prisoner…”

Jumping immediately from his position, Rourke pulled the wire that connected the needle with his arm, and the blood flows from his vein on the floor.

"WHAT?", he growled as Pedro approached quickly to put him down back again, but he was way too strong for a person who already donated two blood units.

The commander managed to get out forcefully. Storming towards his office, he left the blood traits on the floor behind him. Finding half a jarred door, he quickly looked inside as two guards stood there already. Out of fear, one of them spoke to justify himself.

“Sir, she unlocked somehow the door while we were at lunch break…”

Grabbing the guy on his collar, he forced the blood flow everywhere.

"HOW DARE YOU SPEAK! YOU HAD ONE JOB, JOHNSON!", he screamed at his face as Pedro got inside and pulled him from the frightened soldier.

Oscar followed him and tried to secure his wound as the doctor held him tightly.

"Calm down, Rourke!”, said Pedro, feeling his ally shake from the anger he felt.

Dominguez never saw him that angry before, except when he found his mother dead.

"DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN! WHY WOULD SHE RUN! SHE WAS IN UNSTABLE STATE!", he screamed.

"We will find who is responsible for this…please calm down, Jason, let Oscar work…"

Inhaling deeply, he let the man rest him on his bed as he cleared the blood and applied bandages around it. _'The bed is still warm',_ he concluded as he rested his palm on the sheets.

“She could not be too far! Let me go find her!”, he said to Dominguez.

"I already sent a patrol car to search the surroundings. It is still daylight, and we can't do much at this point. I ordered them to follow her if they spot her so we can bring her back tonight. Don't worry…"

"How the fuck I should not worry?! She left like that, without shoes and clothes! Someone can hurt her!"

“No one will hurt her as our team is nearby…trust me…”

Lowering his head, he rubbed his eyes nervously and smacked his knee out of anger. He knew that she would not run away, so he searched for a reason. With his perception, he noticed a girl's figure pass his office in a hurry, but when he turned his head to look, she was already gone.

_‘I caught you!’_

**Visuals:**

****

**Elena and K in the emergency room**

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**R donating K blood**

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**Tanya when R kicked her out**

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**Tina running away**


	21. 𝐅𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick reminder that I appreciate all of you who stick around to read! Thank you! 😇

Lara waited till midnight to sneak out, unnoticeably. Sam was deep in her sleep, mumbling a thing or two, occasionally, making Lara chuckle a couple of times.

 _'What are you even dreaming of?'_ , she asked mentally as her friend said a couple of unclear words like 'asshole' and 'run'.

Putting covers that fell on the floor on her friend again, Lara sighed, knowing that she promised Sam that she wouldn't mess with Trinity anymore.

_'Sorry...'_

Slowly getting out, she locked the doors behind her, making sure that no-one hears or sees her. Deciding to bring the gun she purchased from Rocky, Lara checked her leg to see if it was inside her holster. She grabbed a bike and jumped on it, leaving the building behind faster than usual. The night was cold, as a couple of snowflakes fell upon her face, freezing it in the process. Slowly cycling, she tried to remember which way she needs to go. The one thing she certainly knew was that her gun dealer would not get away with the current situation.

### (★★★)

'This is survey team, commander, do you copy me?', said a voice from Pedro's radio.

He grabbed it from Rourke's desk as the younger commander widened his eyes and looked like he was ready to jump and take over actions in his hands.

"Yes, did you find her?", asked Dominguez, visibly worried. He didn't like how the conversation started, nor did the other man.

'Sir, we didn't find anything except her footsteps that led to the main road. We think she took a cab or someone drove her away...', said a soldier, visibly disappointed. They have been searching for her for the whole day, and it looked like she disappeared.

"Let me go find her...", said Rourke clenching his jaw.

His palms were sweating from the amount of stress he felt, so he rubbed them together. He remembered the conversation he had with Tanya a couple of hours before.

_ Flashback: _

_Rourke stormed into her office as his arm started to bleed. Pedro followed him, trying to calm him down, telling him not to come to conclusions too early, but the angry commander continued regardless._

_When he opened the doors forcefully, they flew and hit the wall behind them._

_It was visible that Tanya expected this since she didn't move from her office desk. She sat there calmly as no one was there. Scribbling her papers she didn't even raised her head to acknowledge the two people._ _When Jason noticed this, his breathing became sharp. For the minute, he stood there, in front of her, just observing._

_"Can I help you, sir?", she asked, still unbothered._

_"Jason, let's leave her to work...come, we can...", softly spoke the doctor, but soon enough got interrupted by his ally's deed._

_Throwing everything from her desk with one swipe of his hands, she widened her eyes and backed off as she stood up. 'Now you notice me?', he_ _thought as he watched her frightened face. Tanya could tell that she poked the bear too roughly this time by the commander's eyes. If a look could kill, she would be slaughtered and buried in the spot._

_"What have you done? Huh?", asked Rourke as he circled the desk, getting dangerously close to her._

_Taking a couple more steps backward, she met the wall with her back and gulped. From the time she met him, she never saw this side of him. It frightened her to the core of her being._

_"What do you mean?", she said, deciding to play innocent for the first time in her life._

_Everyone who knew her personally knew that she never made such a stupid mistake, and yet she did one. One that was going to cost her a lot. When he closed the space between them, her eyes filled with barely visible tears, but visible enough for him to notice. At that moment, he knew that she did something, so his facial expression turned even worse._

_"Don't make me repeat myself...If you admit it, we can efficiently solve this. I will take a rank from you since you stuck your nose in our business. But if you deny it any further, I swear...", he said as his hot breath hit her forehead._

_Not knowing what to do, she thought for a second, inhaling his scent mixed with blood and sweat. Tanya couldn't understand why he had such a strong effect on her. Usually, the guys were the ones who did everything to win her over._

_'How dumb I was...', she thought._

_"I just went to check on her...sir."_

_"Is this all you have to say?! Huh?", said the commander as he grabbed the girl's collar, making her look deeply at his almost black eyes._

_Pedro was trying to move his hands from her, as he was_ _telling him to calm down, but it didn't work._

_"Sir...We just talked, and that's it! I never did anything wrong to her..."_

_"WHAT DID YOU SAID?!", he growled, making her close her eyes._

_A couple of minutes passed by, and she finally answered something that he already suspected._

_"That we are in love..."_

_Slowly releasing her, he backed off a bit, looking at her with a very disappointed face. He brought his hand through his hair, scratching it nervously, and kicked her working chair with his leg. The chair fell on the ground, and a loud bang scared the other two people, as both of them flinched on the sound. Turning_ _around once again, he threatened with his finger as he spoke clearly._

_"You will fuckin REMEMBER this, 'till the end of your life. Just fuckin wait. She will tell us what happened, and from what I see, NOTHING GOOD IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO YOU! WHY ARE YOU OBSESSED WITH ME?!", he yelled as the commander Olga entered quietly, making confused eye contact with Dominguez, who motioned with his hands to her not to get closer._

_"I AM NOT OBSESSED WITH YOU! YOU WERE FLIRTING WITH ME THE WHOLE DAMN TIME BEFORE THAT GIRL APPEARED! YOU ARE IN LOVE WITH YOUR PRISONER! YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED, BUT INSTEAD, YOU CAME HERE TO TAKE IT ALL ON ME! AND STOP YELLING ON ME ALREADY! I AM DONE WITH THIS BULLSHIT!", screamed the girl on now, very offended Rourke._

_She passed beside him and stormed out of the office, not reacting to his orders to stop and return._

_Nodding to the older Russian lady, Rourke put his hands on his hips as his eyes drifted on the floor. Realizing everything that Tanya just said was the truth, he remained silent, exchanging looks with the other two commanders. Olga was visibly pissed because he yelled at her soldier, so he apologized and went out as well._

_Dominguez stood there, ashamed, as the woman scanned him and judged him. He stepped forward and tried to speak, but he couldn't find words since he was confused._

_"What was that?", asked Olga with a strong accent. Shaking his head, he put an arm behind her back to make her walk away with him._

_"I think I am losing my authority..."_

_ End of flashback. _

'What we should do, sir?', repeated the soldier, bringing the young man back to the present time.

Dominguez was brooding for a while.

"Go to her mansion. She may have gone there but just observe for a while. Don't do anything stupid. If you spot her, send the signal, and I'll send a backup. She may have stronger protection this time...".

'Copied that...'

"Jason, I will need you to go to Rocky's hideout. Bring your men with you. We need every bit of ammunition that he has there. Take everything, and be careful. There might be some of his men left to guard the place. And don't worry about the girl. I promise we are closer with every minute."

"Why you avoid sending me to take her back?"

"I don't avoid, Rourke. I need you for this job. Besides, what's the thing between you and the girl? Don't tell me that Tanya is telling the truth..."

"Nothing ever happened between us! It could never happen. What I feel is small compared to what our goal demands. I messed around with Tanya before, only for fun, but she took it all seriously apparently, and..."

"Wait, what you feel?", Pedro cut him mid-sentence, furrowing his brows.

"I said it in a context...", answered the commander firmly.

"Rourke...We talked about this before. You can't let your emotions block our way..."

"I KNOW! God! Even if there is something, I- I wouldn't...", he stopped the explaining and bit his lip nervously.

Dominguez caught that and placed himself next to him.

"Tanya is a great girl..."

"I don't like her! And stop talking to me like you pity me! I can have whoever I want!"

"I don't pity you...just directing you towards a better path...Please. Whatever you feel for our prisoner can't be brought on the surface..."

Listening to Pedro's calm and almost fatherly voice and advice, Jason nodded his head and put his hand on the doctor's shoulder.

"I know...", he whispered.

That triggered a lot of emotions and memories within Dominguez. He watched him grow into a man since he joined them. Never having a good example, Jason did pretty bad things, and in some way, Pedro felt that he needed him as someone who will correct his decisions from time to time. He never was blessed to have his child, but he felt like Jason was his blood. He could resemble in many ways with him. Rourke's voice disturbed his train of thoughts.

"Thanks for putting up with me. I am glad I know you."

### (★★★)

"How are you feeling?", asked Elena as Konstantin woke up a hundredth time from what looked like a bad dream.

Rapid eye-opening and heavy breathing told her that he dreamed of something disturbing most of the time. Not leaving his side, she leaned her head on the corner of his bed as the man slowly turned his head towards her. He observed her with his cold eyes, which looked now grey. His usual blue eye hue disappeared as his face gave no sight of a healthy person. He looked nauseous and tired.

"Why are you still here?", he asked her with a slow voice.

"Why not?"

"I don't need a babysitter."

"Oh really? You look very capable of doing everything at this moment."

"Stop it."

"Fine...sorry", she said while sighing loudly. "You looked like you dreamed of something ugly..."

The commander closed his eyes and swallowed hard. The dream he had was very vivid, and he couldn't shake it off from his mind. Rocky shot Elena's head, and his sister calling him to join her on the other side. He remembered what he said to her: _'I'm sorry...I have someone I need to take care of on Earth.'_

That slapped him hard as he realized that he denied to die, to be by Elena's side. Opening his eyes again widely, he furrowed his eyebrows and looked at her once again. The girl looked confused while watching all of his emotions painted on his face.

"Do you practice some black magic or something?", he asked, and she chuckled and shook her head.

"That was random...And also not an answer to my question."

"You can't question me."

"Oh, I see you feel better...The authority is back. I'm just trying to have a normal conversation with you, Sir."

Staring at her face, he noticed that she had a small cut on her lip, probably from Rocky's forceful grip. Konstantin brought his thumb on her lips and went through them. Noticing her cheeks turning red and her breath becoming short, he spoke softly again.

"What have you done to me?", he said, and she exactly knew what he was referring to but felt weak to bring this further.

"What you mean?"

"I dreamed of you", he continued.

"And?"

"And I dreamed of my sister..."

"You have a sister?"

"I had a sister...She is now long gone. Ana asked me to join her. But I refused."

That scared Elena, so she shifted in her chair and brought it closer to him.

"She called you to go with her?", she asked, almost whispering.

"Yes..."

"In my culture...this is not a good sign..."

His corner of lip curled in a small smile as he stroked her cheek now, very slowly.

"I wonder why I said no..."

### (★★★)

Hiding behind the walls, Lara swiftly checked her enemy's warehouse. She couldn't believe that there was no one inside. Everything looked abandoned and pretty suspicious.

_'He wouldn't leave this place unprotected. What are you doing now, Rocky?'_

Storming to the last room, she found nobody there except a bunch of weapons on the walls and floor.

 _'I don't like this...',_ she thought, feeling nervousness rise.

A sharp sound of the door opening caught her attention, and she panicked.

 _'Shit'_.

Being on the second floor didn't give her many options, so she quickly slid behind what looked like Rocky's desk and peaked through a small hole to see the potential threat. Multiple male voices shouted clear, and she got lost since she didn't expect anyone besides Rocky and his people.

"Shit!", she mumbled, seeing that behind her was a small window, closed with metal bars.

Following every sound with her ears, she anticipated unexpected to appear behind the corner any minute. When the steps became closer, she became aware that she has nowhere to run. Two soldiers broke into the room, and the rest followed as they screamed once again that it was clear. Widening her eyes at the last man that entered, her jaw dropped low.

 _'Rourke?! What the hell are you doing here?'_ , she thought as her pulse rose. Rourke slowly walked around, checking out the exhibition.

"That pig didn't even bother to hide them...Take it all to truck", he ordered, and his people obeyed.

They picked up the weapons and went out as fast as they came in, leaving Rourke to stand on his spot. He looked left and right, scanning the surrounding.

Lara shivered as she remembered their last encounter.

 _'Damn, he is alive...I thought I hallucinated the time I saw him in that building! I didn't need you now...'_ , she thought.

Suddenly, he looked in her direction, directly at the small hole on the desk, and scuffed, crossing his arms on his chest. He didn't even bother to take his gun out.

"Come out, Croft. You stink on a mile distance", he ordered, and she felt her heart sank in her stomach.

 _'How the fuck he knew that I was here...'_ , she said to herself, refusing to do what he just said.

"Don't make me wait, or I'll drag you out on my own."

Brainstorming what she can do, she decided to taste her luck. Quickly straightening behind the desk, she narrowed her gun towards his head.

"Uh-uh...don't do that. You know you wouldn't escape with that."

"How did you know I was here?", she asked in a barely trebly voice.

"You are ether stupid, or you pretend. I know how you breathe, let alone how you smell."

"...That sounds creepy..."

"Don't flatter yourself. Special forces skill. What are you doing here? I thought Konstantin ended you not so long ago?"

Seeing an angry expression on her face made him smile mockingly.

"Not in this life."

"Oh, you got braver than before, perfect!", he stated and took a couple of steps towards her.

That triggered her shooting next to him in a warning.

"Don't come closer!", she yelled.

"Shh, you don't want my men to hear you unless you want to be dead. Tell me, Croft, are you always this careless?"

"Rourke, if you come any closer, the next bullet is going through your head!"

"Commander Rourke!", he corrected loudly in an annoyed tone.

Not listening to her false threat, he continued with a satisfying smile.

_'You dumb bitch. We both know you wouldn't shove yourself into the grave.'_

When he was in front of her, he stopped, letting her aim at him. His courage frightened Lara since she knew that she wouldn't get out unnoticed if he got killed, and she will have the whole Trinity on her back once again.

"Let me go, and I won't bother you anymore."

"You said something?", he answered, turning his ear to her and pretending that she said no word. "Tell me one reason I should let you go."

Seeing his radio attached to his uniform, she came to an idea. Clearing her throat, she loudly spoke.

"I know you killed Ana."

"How would you know this?", he asked as he denied all of that.

"I saw a journal in Mexico."

"And what? I could have written it as an ambush for you. You didn't learn a single thing about me, Lara."

"And you didn't learn shit about me, commander. You're hiding this from Konstantin. He came to my house because you told him I was the one who killed his sister."

After these words, Rourke went silent, and his facial expression changed for the worse. He imagined all ways he could kill her right there, but something was holding him from doing it.

"Let me go, or my friends could easily tell him the truth. If I get out of here alive, I guarantee you that your secret is safe with me."

 _'You bitch'_ , he thought as he bit his lip, feeling defeated.

Although he was the one who shot from the riffle, the order came from higher authorities. And he will never forget himself for firing those bullets. His men entered the room and went full ambush mode as soon as they realized that it was Lara. Rourke raised his hand to show them to lower their guns, and they did, confused.

"She is just about to leave, aren't you, Lara?", he asked blankly, and she nodded slowly. Lara made her way towards the doors as Jason's hand stopped her, grabbing her once again. "Be sure that this isn't over. You know nothing Croft", hissed the commander in her face.

The girl just freed her hand and walked out slowly, never lowering her gun from Rourke's body. When she left, one of his men spoke.

"Sir, why we let her go?"

"SHUT UP, RILEY! AND DO YOUR JOB!", he shouted, and they got back to the previous work, without any other words.

 _'God, I should have killed her in Siberia...'_ , he thought, grabbing his pulsating head.

When Dominguez conveyed the order to take Ana down, he also said that Council didn't see Lara as a problem, so he left Rourke a choice if he wants to kill her too or not. Of course, he thought it would be fun or useful to keep her alive since she knew more than her father's books and journals ever said. That was a big mistake.

The other thing he never remembered was that his radio was on the whole time. And that his wounded ally never took off his uniform.

That night, Konstantin stayed in the emergency room alone, staring at the ceiling with a teary eyes after what he heard on the radio.

Two things bothered him: First was that Croft was still alive and pretty much shameless, as always, and the second one was the statement that she said to Rourke.

_'I will break all of your bones...'_

** Visuals: **

** **

** Rourke listening to Dominguez and other soldier **

** **

** Part of Rocky's ammunition **

** **

** Lara sneaking into Rocky's place **

** **

** K realizing R killed Ana **


	22. 𝐅𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐰𝐢𝐜𝐞, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐡

Rourke took his time to reflect on everything Lara told him. He didn't feel proud because it was the truth. She stabbed those buried words deeply, making them reopen again. Knowing that he never did the right thing pulling that trigger on his own, he lived with it every day. Ana was dear to him. He could never admit this fully, but deep inside, he knew she was the only one besides Dominguez who would help him through tough times. Not being close to Konstantin resulted in mainly speaking with Ana which brought them closer. One day, when she went on a field mission with her brother, Jason found a small, brown notebook laid on her desk when he intended to check on her work in her office. Debating whether he should or not open it, he took it after a couple of minutes of staring into it. It was her diary. Knowing that she will return in a couple of days, he shoved it into his upper pocket of uniform since it fitted and left. That night, before his sleep, he found out stuff he was never supposed to read.

 _'What have you done to him?'_ , he slowly said to himself, in shock. It turned out that sweet Ana was not that sweet after all. _'He is your brother...for God's sake...'_.

A day after he read it all, he learned that she is a great manipulator also. That she used her illness to her advantage, and his beliefs turned out the truth. Every time she would argue with Konstantin, she would play victim, and she had no shame to act like this in front of others whatsoever. Remembering those things, he prayed that his ally never crosses path with Croft again or find out about that talk.

‘Jason? Are you there?’, asked Pedro through the radio, and he lazily brought it closer to his mouth, sinking in the truck seat deeper.

The soldier who drove noticed his commander’s absent behaviour.

“Yea, we are on our way. There was no one there”, he said slowly.

‘I see…’

“Any news from our team? Did they find her?”

'No, she wasn't there. It looks like she didn't go there. They found her cell phone in her room. It could contain her father’s information.’, said Pedro in a defeated voice.

"Good, I'll check it when I come. How's... Konstantin?", asked Jason hesitatingly.

‘Better, but still weak, I would say. Oscar is with him from time to time.’

“Good…I’m out…”

‘Wait…you don’t sound good…did something happened?’

“No, I’m fine. Just tired of this shit already.”

‘Don’t lose hope. I am positive the plan will work out.’

"I'm out…see you in the base."

Turning off the radio, he closed his eyes and leaned on the open window. He was worried about Tina. Thinking constantly that something ugly could have happened to her led him to overthink till his head wanted to explode from pain. The notification sound brought him back to reality, and he took his phone from his pocket.

Unknown number: Can we talk later? I am sorry for causing trouble. Tanya

_'How the hell she has my number!?'_ , he thought and furrowed his brows madly.

It irritated him how she had the nerve to talk to him after all, so he deleted the message in a fury. Noticing with a corner of his eye that his soldier is watching him in confusion, he turned to him and yelled: 'what?'. The guy just swallowed hard and focused on the road again.

When he got another message, he lost it. Preparing to text Tanya back, he got caught in surprise. A bakery girl who he met a couple of nights ago wrote him. She was asking him if he remembers her and if he wants to meet. At first, he hesitated to reply but figured out it would be a good thing if he leaves the base for a while, so he confirmed and made a meeting plan with her.

 _‘Cinema, huh? Let’s see…_ ’.

Concluding that she is a nice girl overall, he decided to let it flow and gave in.

### (★★★)

"He hates me…I fucked up real good. God, I wish I could return to Russia right now. I hate all of this", spoke Tanya to Elena through a cry.

Her friend held her in her hands, caressing her hair, trying to calm her down. The situation was delicate, and neither of them knew what to do. Tanya was dealing with a similar situation in the past, and it looked like is repeating history.

"You know that you overreact sometimes?", Elena asked her crying friend, who started to cry even louder.

“I am so stupid…”, she answered.

"Shh, you are not. But you have a bad trait for sure. If commander Rourke doesn't like you, leave it that way. You can't change the way someone feels about you."

"It's easy for you to say that… Konstantin looks like he is on cloud nine when you are around."

The silence was long before Elena decided to share her thought with her friend. Feeling unsure herself, she thought deeply about what she said.

"It's not like that…He is a difficult man. One day it looks like he would like to have me around, and the other day, he acts like I am his enemy. I don't know what's his problem."

“I see…did ever something happened between you two?”, asked Tanya with a glistening eye, but her friend shook her head in negation.

“No…”, she lied.

“I can tell you are lying…”

“For real, nothing happened…”

"Yeah, right… Since when you are keeping secrets from me?"

Sighing, she bit her lip and looked away. It was hard to explain the situation to anyone.

"I am not sure about what he feels, nor what I feel. We are just like water and fire. Two opposites that can't go with each other, but", the girl stopped for a while before continuing. "But there is something that attracts me to be near him. He gives me this strange feeling of discomfort, and at the same time, I feel safe around him. Is that weird?", she asked with genuine confusion.

“Well, it sounds weird, to be completely honest… I saw how strange that guy is. What exactly attracted you to him?"

"I feel like I can't give you a true answer… Sometimes I feel like I am just crazy and imagining things…"

Elena spoke for a while with her friend, not realizing that her commander was just right by the door, eavesdropping on every word she said. Her voice was sad, and it cracked a couple of times, which hurt him deeply. He wanted to come in to spend time with her since he felt like shit about the whole situation but never expected to hear what he just did.

 _'Does she thinks that for real?',_ he thought while listening closely.

"…And he yells at me for no reason most of the time. I wish I could change that, at least If I could just stay out of his way. It's hard to speak about this. Sometimes I wish I could return to Russia as well, but I would have nowhere to go. I assume the house my grandparents left me is already ruined cause it's old. I would need to find a place to stay and work till I die."

Turning around, Konstantin left for the emergency room once again. He couldn't believe she felt like he hated her. It was never his intention to hurt her. But he realized that he did for most of the time. And as she said – for no reason. Sleeping with her that night changed him, in a way, but he hated how his ego overtook everything good he felt for her. Slowly crawling to his bed, he sat on it and put his face in his palms. The needle was still in his arm, poking him, but he didn’t care. All he wanted was Rourke dead.

### (★★★)

When Jason arrived at the base, the survey team already got there and was waiting with Tina's belongings. He lazily got out and walked towards them, dragging his feet through a now, pretty high snow. He shivered visibly and sniffed with his nose as the cold air finally got through him to his bones.

"Sir here is prisoners' valuable stuff we found. She never went home, but her father surely went to search for her. He left her multiply voice messages."

“Good, what you found?”

“Her ID, laptop, and phone.”

"Give me everything", he ordered, and they did.

It was funny how Tina looked tough, but all her belongings were pretty girly. Her pink laptop and phone poked his eyes, and he scoffed and furrowed his eyebrows in disgust before dismissing the team. Rourke quickly went to his office, passing everyone in a hurry. Wanting to find her as soon as possible, he attached the laptop to the battery but found nothing on it. The commander took her phone to go through it.

"Damn, she has a password…", he said nervously and scratched his scalp. It wasn't her name or her father's name. Playing with her ID card, he went through her information and got an idea to try her birth date.

"Bingo!"

The phone unlocked. It looked pretty simple inside. Jason found texts from her friends, random recipes, her pictures in underwear, which he scrolled pretty fast. He felt like he was unprofessional at that moment.

‘Let’s see her caller list…’, he scrolled and stopped on one particular name.

"'My love’? Does she have a boyfriend?"

Starring at it for some time, he realized she used to call this number every day, but it was strange he never called her back. Pressing the call button, Rourke turned the speaker on and waited. It ringed for some time, and a male answered.

'Tina? Where have you been? I thought you broke up with me.'

‘It is indeed her boyfriend…’, he said mentally to himself as he felt jealousy rise.

'Hello? Are you giving me a silent treatment again?'

Listening to his voice, Rourke debated if he should answer or not.

'Fuck you, bitch! I already found a substitute while you were busy playing your game!', the guy yelled and hung up.

Rourke turned his head like a puppy on the side, thinking about what he just heard, but clicked on the call button again.

'WHAT?', he growled through the phone.

“You should not speak to a lady like this.”

'Who the hell are you?! Oh, let me guess, one of her new fuck buddies since I don't recognize your voice?'

"Watch your words! I can cut your dick in pieces in a couple of seconds! Where is she?", he asked, but the guy hung up again, leaving angry Jason to curse loudly.

Leaving his office to catch some air since he was already irritated, a pair of hands grabbed him forcefully by his collar from behind. Choking him with an elbow, the man spoke.

"I never thought you would be responsible for Ana's death!", Konstantin said in a dangerous tone.

He was too strong for his health situation, so Rourke struggled to free himself, trying to move the arm underneath his chin that didn't let him breathe.

"What are you talking about?!", asked Jason while coughing.

Hearing that, Elena and Tanya came from their nearby office in a hurry. They observed the situation horrified, as Elena begged the blond commander to stop, but he never paid attention to them. Stomping on his foot, Rourke managed to wiggle out of his grip and stood further to observe him. He looked like he is ready to tear him apart, and he feared that this day would come.

"YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID, DON'T PLAY SAINT!", yelled the blond commander, and Rourke stepped back again.

He noticed Pedro coming to them in a hurry with older Russian ladies. _'Great, gather everyone, just what I need right now.'_

"Look…Let's talk….", said Jason and motioned him with his hands to calm down, but an enraged man jumped on him again, punching him in his face.

Multiple screams escaped women's mouths as his opponent fell on the floor. Wiping the blood from his lips, he grinned his teeth and got up on his feet.

"You said everything through radio…you SCUMBAG!". Konstantin turned to Dominguez, who was trying to approach him to calm him down but was scared, as well. "IS THIS WHY YOU WANTED ME TO JOIN YOU!? TO MASK THE TRUTH?!", he asked, as everyone stayed shocked in their place.

“It’s not like that, let’s talk…”, answered Dominguez, but was shut before he could finish.

“BULLSHIT!”, cut him the blond man and turned once again to Rourke. “WHY DID YOU KILLED HER?!”

"IT WAS AN ORDER FROM HIGH COUNCIL!", he tried to justify himself but earned another punch from his ally.

This time, his lip split, and blood went everywhere as he spits on the ground. Deciding to fight back, he hit Konstantin that landed on the floor from the punch. Jumping on him, he proceeded to punch him, but his ally kicked him off and took his position instead, setting him on the floor. The scene was pretty intense as they both cursed and fought.

“Konstantin, Jason, stop, you are going to kill each other!”, yelled Pedro behind them, trying to grab and separate them.

Finally, he called for help, and a couple of soldiers pulled two men apart. They breathed heavily and looked poisonous at each other.

"ANA MANIPULATED YOU FOR A YEARS!", spitted Jason the truth that he hid all this time.

"STOP JUSTIFYING YOURSELF!"

“SHE USED YOU! I FOUND HER DIARY WHEN YOU TWO WENT TO SIBERIA! SHE USED YOU, KONSTANTIN, FOR HER SELFISH REASONS!”

The expression on Konstantin’s face went from angry to confused. He observed Jason and shrugged his arms from the soldiers who held him.

“You are lying”, he simply said.

“No, I am not! Man, wake up! Did you thought that it was God who gave you those stigmata?”, he asked with an irritated tone.

"You are just lying to me because she would never…."

"SHE WOULD, AND SHE DID! THAT WOMAN ONLY WANTED TO SAVE HER ASS! NEVER CARED FOR YOU! IT WAS ALL A PLAY!"

"What are you talking about right now? Are you trying to turn my dead sister against me?"

“Ha! I knew it. Ana blinded you very well! But I still have something that used to belong to her. Do you want to see it? I warn you; you won’t like it.”

Looking at Jason in disbelief, Konstantin shook his head, and Jason nodded and went to his office. As everyone anticipated the next move, Konstantin exchanged looks with Pedro, who whispered: 'I'm sorry…'.

Coming out with that same small notebook he thought of before that day, Jason threw it on the ground before his friend's feet. Observing closely, the blond man remembered that it was Ana's notebook. He saw it before, but she claimed that it was a mission planner.

“LOOK! COME ON! READ IT! YOU HAVEN’T EVEN SEEN THE TRUTH THAT WAS IN FRONT OF YOUR NOSE!”, Rourke continued to yell, filling now a quiet place with his voice.

Slowly, the commander took it from the ground and observed it. It still smelled of her fragrance. Still feeling like he hallucinated, he turned around on his feet and left.

All of them stood there for a while, motionless, proceeding with what just happened.

"Jason, it was not a good idea to give him this…He might regain the old pain, again…", said the doctor quietly to Rourke, who still gazed towards where his ally left.

"It's the only way he would know the truth…"

### (★★★)

Carrying the small object, Konstantin entered his office and opened the small window to let the air inside since it was stuffy. Throwing himself on his messy bed, he growled from the sharp pain that travelled through his upper body to his limbs. That fight took the last bit of energy out of him. Tracing with his fingertips the sturdy leather from the notebook and the golden initials on it, he let his mind fill with memories of her. He knew that if what Rourke told him was the truth, he would break into pieces. It was always hard when his sister was in the story, but now, he felt strange. As Konstantin sniffed the leather, his eyes started to fill with tears. The busy days never allowed him to miss her as he should.

A faint knock on his doors made him look in that direction, and he managed to mumble small and unclear ‘yes?’. On a doorway stood Elena, peaking through it. She looked worried.

"Can I come in?", she asked softly. "I thought you would not want to be alone…"

When she got no answer, she entered and placed herself next to the man, carefully. Bringing her arms around his neck to hug him, he battled to stay composed.

In his own office, Rourke walked around, thinking of his decision that he made. If he didn't react that way, they would probably end up both in the grave sooner or later. What his sister did to him was cold, and Jason couldn't keep it from Konstantin.

 _'Fuck what Pedro said…'_ , he thought when he remembered how he gave him a long-ass speech before they found their ally how this should stay secret.

But in some way, he grew to his friend throughout the time they had in the current situation. Usually grumpy, but a good man overall. He hated him, yes, but now, he couldn't admit to himself that he looked at him as his brother. Giving him blood was good enough proof for Jason since he never gave anything that important fpr anyone.

_'I hope he will understand once he finishes reading…'._

Noticing the time on his wall clock, he mumbled 'shit' and flew in a hurry to get changed and wash his destroyed face. Putting a ton of hair gel and cologne on, he checked one last time his reflection in the mirror, combed his hair backward, and was already on the way to meet the girl.

His date shouldn't wait for so long.

**Visuals:**

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**Ana's secret diary**

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**Sad Tanya**

** Tina's phone **

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** Rourke preparing for his date **


	23. 𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Russian sentences translation in the end notes.

Words never hurt Konstantin more in his entire life. While his wet eyes drifted left to the right slowly, Elena was following his every move. Sitting motionless next to him, she decided to give him space to deal with it alone, so she stayed quiet for the most time. The diary was full of their memories and, mostly, Ana’s last days on Earth. She started this clearly because she felt desperate and hopeless that she will live longer. It reminded him of so many moments with her he forgot, that he was feeling almost ashamed of himself.

Everything was there. From how she appreciated that he was there for her, how he brought her food in Siberia because she was too cold to go out, his motivational talks not to lose hope, all the way to how he was her only support to continue with her life. Commander was disconnected from reality at that point, just like he was sitting next to her. And then, he came to the particular part that changed his points of view, once and for all.

The paragraph started with: ' I never wanted to hurt my brother, although I did. I've done him wrong from the beginning.'

That's where Elena noticed her commander furrow his brows, and his eyes became scary, once again. The blood-shotted eyes of now pretty disturbed man moved very fast, and it looked like he will never blink again.

'That night, I decided to give him something that will shape him into a strong man with a purpose. I was debating for a while, should I do it or not, because, if he caught me, we would never be the same with each other again. My hopelessness made me do it. He also made me do it because seeing him sinking deeper every day made me feel bad too. He missed our family. My brother regrets that he never met our parents. He would usually tell me how he dreams of escaping this ridiculous facility to find them and ask them why they left us. These words broke my heart. So, I thought about what I could do and found a solution. The day prior, they taught us about God. That was a pretty serious topic for Trinity. We were about to find out how the sect formed and why. I learned about Jesus. And his stigmata...'

As Konstantin progressed with an explanation of how Ana stabbed him in his hands, his insides flipped madly, making him nauseous. The man's breath became loud, and Elena put her hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down.

Not long after, the commander threw the small notebook, hitting the wall behind the girl with it. Letting a pretty angry growl, he got up and made a couple of steps through the office, with his fists ready to beat anything that comes his way. Failing to calm himself, he flipped his table in rage, making everything falls on the floor with a loud noise, including his personal copy of Bible. Elena covered her mouth in fear as she stayed motionless, buried in place.

The one particular sentence made him lose his mind and sympathy for his sister forever.

'...And I used this to manipulate him when I felt like I am going to die from lung cancer.'

Konstantin never trusted Croft when she said this to him in the Lost City. Knowing that she is bluffing most of the time, he thought she wanted to give him more pain for the goodbye.

"Sir?", asked Elena from behind, with a trembly voice.

She knew it would be for the best to leave him in these situations, but she was worried that he could do something horrible.

"She used me...", he said after a short break. His voice was cracking.

"What?"

"She fuckin' used me!", he yelled and hit the same desk with his leg, making it slide to the other side of the office.

Moving to the wall, he punched it with his fist, making a hole inside. The walls were weak since the facility was in bad condition, but the scene looked pretty messed up regardless, so Elena ran to him and grabbed his arm, begging him to stop. Pushing her aside, he continued to destroy the small room as the young woman stood there, yelling.

"Please stop it! You will hurt yourself!"

Seeing that he won't listen to her, she wrapped her arms around him from behind. The loud heartbeats filled her head as she leaned on his back.

"Get out", said the commander, and she refused to let him go.

"No... I won't let you deal alone with this. Please, can we talk..."

"Get out, Elena! That is an order!", repeated Konstantin with the same dangerous tone.

"Calm down, please... You will hurt yourself more than you are already..."

"GET OUT!", he yelled and pushed her away once again.

This time it was more forceful, so she almost lost her balance. Noticing that his words and actions hurt her once again, he continued.

"DON'T TRY TO FIX ME! NOONE CAN DO IT, ESPECIALLY YOU! STOP TRYING! I AM NOT FOR YOU..."

Her eyes filled with tears, and she nodded slowly, starting to feel like she is giving up.

"Do you mean that?", she asked quietly.

Thinking about that, her commander softened his facial expression a bit and bit his lip.

"I said what I mean! I don’t play games!"

Knowing that he is lying to both of them, he stared after her as she walked away from the office, holding back her emotions.

### (★★★)

Standing in front of the cinema, Rourke nervously rocked up and down on his feet while he checked out nearby girls. Earlier days left him nervous and unsure of what he wants from his life anymore, so he decided to loosen up and maybe return to some of his old addictions: girls and drinking. As much as the commander tried to control that habits in the past few months, they appeared to be harder to resist. Checking his phone if he got any new messages from the girl he is meeting, he sighed.

 _'She is late...the movie is about to start in a couple of minutes...'_ , he thought, and just when that thought crossed his mind, someone spoke from behind.

"Sorry for waiting..."

"Oh, hey, and wow...you look...beautiful...", said Jason as he turned around. His eyes scanned his date up and down.

Her hair was down and wavy, and she looked like a princess, in his opinion.

"My bus was late due to snow... I figured I never said my name. I'm Hannah...", said the girl while stretching her hand to shake Rourke's, and he gladly took it.

Being a charmer as he is, Jason kissed her hand and smiled, melting the girl's heart already. He spoke a couple of words to break the tension, excused his small cut on his lip, and offered her his arm to take it. They decided to watch a romantic comedy, which was not the commander's favourite genre, but he played gentlemen and let her pick what she likes.

"It has been the longest time since I went to the movies...", he said, and she shyly smiled at him. "Oh, you British people say cinema...sorry...".

"I understood...you non-British person", joked Hannah, and he chuckled.

"I'll get us some food... do you want something particular?"

"No, whatever you feel like eating...".

Hannah was shy, and Jason surely didn't expect that but liked it. The redness from her cheeks never disappeared, and he thought it was captivating. The place quickly filled with chatter and a strong smell of popcorn in the air. Being in the unknown crowd made him happy, so he almost forgot about his problems. Carrying some nachos and drinks, he let her lead the way to their seats. It surprised him that she reserved the highest seats, which were isolated from the rest of the people.

 _'Does she expect me to kiss her then?'_ , he asked himself as he sat next to the girl.

Giving him one small smile, she cleared her throat and blinked with her long lashes.

"So, Jason, if I remember from the paper that you gave me with your number. How are you? I hope you didn't escape your job to see me..."

"I'm pretty much good now that we met...", he said with a cute grin, and she blushed even more. "But I must admit that my boss is about to cut my balls once I return...", he continued with a worried facial expression, and she almost choked on her popcorn from a laugh.

"You are funny...", said the girl, and Rourke sleeked his hair as a sign of the small victory. Noticing this, she smiled once again.

"I try... So, tell me, Hannah, how come a beautiful girl like you is single?"

"I wouldn't know the answer...Maybe because I work in a bakery? Most people see me with flour on my face...".

"Oh, but I think a little flour dust would look cute on your small nose..."

"Trust me, it looks nasty...", she laughed and covered her mouth with the back of her hand.

Moving her hand from her face, Rourke made her confused. Taking that moment, he kissed her cheek and whispered to her ear:

"Don't hide your beautiful smile...I love to watch it...".

The movie started, and the lights went out, so he missed her reaction. All he knew was that her silence was too intimate. For the first half of an hour, they stayed silent, watching the movie and laughing. After some time, they commented quietly on some parts, and at the very end, the long-anticipated scene came. Gulping, he felt nervous as he watched it.

 _'Maybe I should kiss her...'_ , he calculated in his head but noticed that he was feeling nervous around that girl. _'Screw it... I'm going to do it...'._

Turning to face her, she was already staring at him, so he stopped a bit before taking her jaw in his hand. Kissing her slowly, he saw that it wasn't easy as usual. His hand started to tremble, and his breath became heavy. Pulling from her, he looked at her eyes in disbelief.

_'What the fuck is wrong with me?'_

"Are you okay?", she asked, and he nodded his head.

"Just a bit rusty... Haven't kissed a girl in ages...".

His own words caught him off guard once again, and when lights turned on, he got up faster than anyone.

"Come on, we have to go...", Rourke said, taking her by the hand. The confused girl followed after him, and soon enough, they were outside.

"Thanks for the date. I had a nice time with you", mumbled Rourke while looking disturbed. His date wondered if she did something wrong, but before she could ask, he disappeared.

 _'Idiot... don't even think of catching feelings!'_ , the commander scolded himself as he entered the van and left.

### (★★★)

"Rourke, are you there?", talked Pedro into the radio, but there was no sign of the other commander.

Locking his hands behind his back, the doctor sighed as he worried about the current situation. Konstantin was feeling broken, Rourke left the base unexpectedly, and Elena was crying in her office for the longest time. Other soldiers got wounded from the fight they had, so they are recovering as well.

 _'Fucking mess...'_ , Dominguez thought as he looked at his men clearing the bloody floor where the dead bodies laid. Deciding to get rid of the dead ones, he ordered to put them into the big plastic bags and throw them into the North Sea.

"Be careful...Try to mask the inside with the cement bags we took from their facility. If the police stop you, don't act worried. Just say you are delivering those bags, and they will let you go eventually. They won't bother to dig since it's hard to move. Now, go."

Obeying, four men proceeded to put the bodies in Rocky's former trucks. Remembering how much resistance those bastards gave them, Pedro felt anger rise in him. That son of the bitch dared to come to their place. Realizing how thankful he is that his men defeated them, he remembered that there were ladies, as well. They fought like men, no exception, so he was proud about picking their business partners. Then, Olga crossed his mind. She was yelling in Russian, and her blond hair was swinging around freely since her bun got ruined. Looking fierce with an Uzi in her hands, the woman captivated his attention a couple of times. Unlike her ally Nadia that was slightly older, she was looking pretty decent for her age. A healthy glow was shining on her cheeks, which looked more on the pale side, but he didn't care.

Curious about what she was doing at the moment, he made his way towards her office. Then, Pedro felt nervous, and he changed his thoughts about going in. Instead, he peeked through a small door opening to see her.

"Я не думаю, что это закончится хорошо", said the older commander. She observed Olga for a couple of moments as she sipped her tea slowly.

"Мы дали им шанс, мы должны пойти на сделку", ", answered Olga, and Dominguez stared at her, enjoying her voice and language. He had no idea that they feared they made a wrong decision joining his team.

" Если что-то плохое случится с нашей конечной целью, я возьму вас всех за руку и отвезу обратно в Россию", continued Nadia and her friend nodded her head slowly.

"Sir, can I help you?", asked Tanya behind him, obviously intending to enter the office. Since he was in the way, she smiled politely, and he returned his awkward smile, noticing that the ladies inside stared in their direction.

"Um, no, I was just about to enter", he said quickly, trying to pull himself out of the situation. Then, he opened the door and smiled widely to the commanders.

"How are you? You are fine, I see! I just came to check on you because we had a tough fight! Okay! I'll leave you now...".

Finishing his monologue, he turned and flew away, not giving others a chance to speak. That looked strange, and they all looked at each other and burst into a laugh.

### (★★★)

When Lara reached her apartment, she sneaked in, trying not to wake Sam up. The lights were off, which made her think she is still asleep, so she sighed and went to her bathroom. Quickly changing her clothes, the girl threw them into the washing bin and slipped into her pyjama since the plan was to mask any trace of being out. Lara promised Sam that she wouldn't mess with Trinity again, but she failed.

The personal victory she gained that night was a tracker with a microphone attached to Rourke's uniform. He never noticed when she placed it on him.

_'Think you know me, huh?'_

Turning on her tracker, she lowered the volume and waited until she hears someone. After a couple of minutes of sitting on the toilet lid, a rough rumbling disturbed her ears. Praying that Rourke didn't take it off, she continued to listen to the uncomfortable scratching. It turned out that he was putting his uniform on since she heard the belt clasping, and Dominguez who got in to scold him.

'Where the fuck you left?', he asked all pissed, and Lara almost chuckled.

The good thing about the spying device was that it was one-sided, and they could not hear her at all. It was one of the pretty useful things she owned after Siberia that she never had a chance to slid on someone. Pretty small like a fly, with black plastic, it looked almost invisible on black clothes, so she looked to put it on a black part on his uniform.

'I was out...what the fuck with that attitude?', asked Jason, pissed as well.

A loud sigh escaped the doctor's mouth, and she heard a chair squeaking on the floor. Feeling her hairs on her neck rise, she made a disgusted face.

'I just disposed of the bodies... Our men drove them away...', spoke Pedro.

'Good. How's Konstantin?'

'He is not good. I left him alone since I thought I would be dead If I enter.'

'Shit.'

'I got you a couple of recruits, and you need to interview them... Since I found the location of High Council's house on her laptop e-mails, we would need more men for the final deal.'

Bringing the listening device to her ear closer, Lara paid full attention to what they were talking about. _' They are never up to good stuff...'_ , she reminded herself.

'No way? From her e-mails? Wow, the only place I skipped.'

'Yes... So will you check them?'

'Ugh... I hate doing this. You know that. I trust you, if you think they are capable.'

'I still need your approval. Please take a look...'

A silence enrolled, and finally, Rourke agreed.

Hearing footsteps in front of the bathroom, Lara quickly turned off and hid the spying device in her bra since it was small and flushed the toilet water to throw her pistol unnoticeably on the bottom of the dirty laundry bin.

_'Shit!'_

Sam must be awake. Composing herself, she slowly inhaled and exhaled before and got out. Before Lara could react, her eyes wandered towards her friend, who quickly put her belongings into her suitcase. It confused her, but the thought that she heard everything made her worried.

"Sam? What happened?", she asked and got no answer at first.

Her friend was fully dressed, and she wondered when she got time to do this since she was in bed just a couple of moments ago.

"You tell me what happened, Lara! Sneaking out, thinking you will pass unnoticed? I thought you promised me something!"

"Sam, I...", she continued wanting to deny it further but left with no words.

"It's done. I don't want to live in fear because you can't get from the crazy people's way. I'm out."

"But where are you even going?", asked desperate Lara.

"To Jonah and Abby till I find a job soon...This is ridiculous. You know how much I love you, but this is involving me as well... And I am not ready to pass through the same shit again!".

Clumsily shutting her massive suitcase, her friend dragged it through the door and left Lara a loud bang behind her.

Crouching down, Lara took her head in her hands as tears raced with one another on her face. She just lost her dearest friend, and for what? If she was only sure that Trinity is not causing problems again, but that was all that they knew.

"I'm sorry, Sam...", she said through a cry as she curled down in a fetus position, spending her night on the cold floor, thinking about how to stop her enemies.

** Visuals: **

** **

** K's Bible **

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** R waiting for his date **

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** Hannah **

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** Olga's portrait **

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** Lara after Sam left **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Я не думаю, что это закончится хорошо-I don't think it's going to end well.
> 
> Мы дали им шанс, мы должны уважать сделку-We gave them a chance, we have to respect a deal.
> 
> Если что-то плохое случится с нашей конечной целью, я возьму вас всех за руку и отвезу обратно в Россию-If something bad happens to our ultimate goal, I'll take you all by the hand and take you back to Russia.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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